More Than 100 Displaced Flamingos Remain In FL Months After Hurricane Idalia

FLORIDA — Months after Hurricane Idalia hit Florida, flamingos continue to thrive in the state, according to a new report from Audubon Florida.

The storm made landfall in the Big Bend area on Aug. 30 as a Category 3 storm. It also affected other parts of the state where it didn’t make a direct hit, including Florida’s West Coast.

As the storm made its way through the Gulf of Mexico, flamingos, likely picked up in Cuba or Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, were displaced and found their way to the Sunshine State.

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In the days and weeks following Idalia, the colorful birds were spotted across the state.

In February, Audubon Florida organized an American flamingo survey in the state through the Florida Flamingo Working Group as part of a larger effort by the Caribbean Flamingo Conservation Group to census all flamingos in the country.

From Feb. 18-25, more than 40 people filled out the survey, recording 101 wild American flamingos in the state, Audubon Flamingo said in a news release.

The largest group — more than 50 — was spotted in Florida Bay, between the Everglades and the Florida Keys. Another 18 were counted in the Pine Island area in Lee County, while another 14 were seen across the state on the East Coast at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

“We are thrilled that there are flamingos that have remained in Florida after being blown here in 2023 by Hurricane Idalia,” Jerry Lorenz, state director of research for Audubon Florida, said in a statement. “I actually suspect that 100 flamingos is the floor of this new population, and there could be more that were not counted during the one-week survey. We are continually monitoring for breeding flamingos.”

Flamingos previously lived and likely bred in Florida centuries earlier, the organization said. The 19th century plume trade, a time when an ounce of feathers was worth more than gold, decimated the bird’s population in Florida.

Later, with the “extensive draining and ditching of the Everglades,” the flamingo’s habitat was destroyed, Audubon Florida said.

The group hopes that actions to protect Florida wetlands and improve water flow, especially in the River of Grass in the Everglades, will create a habitat allowing flamingos to thrive.

The organization asks people who spot flamingos in nature to give them space and use binoculars or a zoom lens to view them from a safe distance.