Florida Photographer Spots American Flamingo with Leg Band

Rachelle Vance was decided to see one other flamingo. Two months after Hurricane Idalia swept a pink wave of the gangly birds via Florida and past in August 2023, the photographer from Crystal River dropped her canine on the sitter and packed her journey trailer. She crossed the state together with her kayak, digital camera, and hope. She lucked out—she noticed the swish waders that fall, and managed to get nice views of them once more every year since. However each makes an attempt in early 2026 have been fruitless.  

Sighting the hen

In July of 2026, her persistence lastly paid off. Vance noticed not one American Flamingo however a flock of them within the shallow waters at Merritt Island Nationwide Wildlife Refuge on two subsequent mornings. She couldn’t have been happier. However upon her return residence, after sifting via her 4,000-plus pictures, she realized she had captured one thing particular: One of many birds within the flock wore a steel band on one leg.

Vance shortly popped some pictures, together with a close-up of the band, into an e-mail to Audubon Florida together with her sighting report: On Sunday, July 12, there have been six, however 4 flew off early. On Monday, she noticed all six once more, and so they stayed collectively on or close to the sandbar as they fed and groomed themselves.  

“I used to be past thrilled to spend time with these flamingos! I felt honored and grateful,” says Vance. “I want these flamingos one of the best and hope they keep wholesome, and Florida does all the things we are able to to make their time right here protected. I’ve pictures from yearly!” she concludes.

Submitting the report

At Audubon workers’s suggestion, Vance submitted her sighting to the Chicken Banding Laboratory, housed on the USGS Jap Ecological Science Middle. On the identical time, Audubon’s Everglades Analysis Station workers started pondering the hen’s origin. Since 2015, Audubon’s State Director of Science Jerry Lorenz, PhD, participated in banding two American Flamingos in Florida, utilizing coloured, alpha-numeric tags in addition to steel bands. Scientists later reported a kind of birds, dubbed Peaches, nesting within the Yucatán.

Audubon’s Wading Chicken Specialist Shauna Sayers decided from the hardly legible numbers in Vance’s close-up picture that scientists probably banded the hen in Mexico! The science middle crew despatched Vance’s picture to the Flamingo Working Group, and shortly thereafter, a response got here from Jennifer McKay, the Chicken Band Laboratory liaison for the Flamingo Working Group. 

“I’ve been getting many pictures of this hen over the previous couple of weeks. Sadly, not one of the pictures have had sufficient numbers seen to course of till now,” says McKay, who additionally obtained pictures from different photographers exhibiting at the very least one extra banded flamingo in the identical space.

What we realized about this hen

McKay reached out to her contact within the Yucatán with the band quantity, and inside every week, Vance and the Flamingo Working Group realized extra about Flamingo #00183. In accordance with the FlamencoLab Laboratory of Ecology and Conservation of the Caribbean Flamingo, scientists banded the hen as a chick in August of 2016 at Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, Yucatán, Mexico. Along with a steel band, #00183 obtained a yellow, alpha-coded plastic band, which apparently fell off someday earlier than the primary reported sighting of it in August 2024 at Merritt Island Nationwide Wildlife Refuge. Photographers and flamingo fans with recognizing scopes have reported seeing #00183 a number of instances since then.

Flamingo fundamentals

The American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber), additionally known as the Caribbean Flamingo, is a big species of flamingo native to the West Indies, northern South America, and the Yucatán Peninsula. It’s considered one of six species worldwide within the Phoenicopteridae household and considered one of 4 discovered within the Western Hemisphere.

American Flamingos are partially migratory and extremely cell, touring broadly looking for appropriate habitat. Scientists suppose that the flamingos dropped at Florida by Hurricane Idalia have been within the strategy of migrating between the Yucatán and Cuba once they obtained blown off track. American Flamingos usually stay 20 to 30 years within the wild however typically stay for much longer in captivity.

Why reporting sightings issues

The size of the challenges dealing with birds and the planet is daunting, and banded hen sighting stories are vitally vital to the conservation and long-term survival of a lot of our most imperiled hen species. Novice hen watchers and photographers play crucial roles on this effort.

Anybody who can safely get numbers from a hen’s band, both via binoculars, scope, or picture, is inspired to report it at www.reportband.gov. Studies significantly improve our collective understanding of the species’ actions, longevity, and habitat use.