Whereas the pink plastic flamingo garden ornaments have been invented in Massachusetts, seeing an precise reside flamingo out within the wild is mainly extraordinary right here.
However that’s precisely what occurred alongside Cape Cod over the weekend when individuals at Chapin Memorial Seaside in Dennis have been fortunate sufficient to identify a flamingo within the water.
The flamingo on the Cape is believed to be the identical one which was seen on Lengthy Island final week.
“That’s crazy,” Pete Costello, assistant curator at Stone Zoo, instructed the Herald as he reacted to the flamingo sighting in Massachusetts. “It’s definitely a rare event… The first one I’ve ever heard of here.”
This could be the primary ever confirmed wild flamingo sighting in Bay State recorded historical past, in keeping with Mass Audubon’s Mark Faherty.
The flamingo might have been separated from its flock, and the chook is confused by itself, Costello stated.
“It may have kept moving north looking for food and ended up here,” he added.
Flamingos eat tiny microscopic shrimp and completely different types of algae, which give flamingos their pink coloration.
“This time of year, there would be enough food for them on the Cape,” Costello stated. “In the wintertime, probably not.”
Flamingos like actually heat waters in Florida and the Yucatan Peninsula, however the Cape’s chilly waters are usually not an issue for them, added Costello of the Stoneham zoo — which has an enormous flock of 47 flamingos.
Like herons and cranes, flamingos fly comparatively low simply above the tree line alongside the coast.
Distant take a look at the American Flamingo on Lengthy Island round sundown yesterday. This chook—the primary on file in New York State—is believed to be on Cape Cod now.🦩#birds #birding pic.twitter.com/ULZQloUODv
— JacquelineUWS (@jacquelineUWS) June 3, 2024
The Massachusetts Avian Data Committee is the board that formally confirms sightings and provides it to the file books. Faherty famous that within the Nineteen Sixties, captive flamingos had escaped within the area and have been noticed on Plum Island.
Hurricane Idalia displaced flamingos final yr, as some have been seen as far north as Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“Wild birds displaced from hurricanes can become permanent refugees and don’t go back home,” stated Faherty, science coordinator for Mass Audubon Cape Cod. “This could be one of those hurricane refugees wandering around.”
The flamingo sighting alongside the Cape excited native chook watchers, who hoped to get one other take a look at the wild animal.
“Does anyone know if the flamingo is still at Chapin Beach? That place is really hard to get into this time of year,” a Fb person posted.
If anybody comes throughout a flamingo, they need to go away it alone like with any wildlife, Costello stated.
He added, “It should eventually head south on its own.”
