The Brief
- A flamingo named Peaches gained widespread attention during Hurricane Idalia.
- Powerful gusts carried a group of flamingos to Tampa Bay in 2023.
- Peaches was lost but has now been located in Mexico.
YUCATAN PENINSULA
–
A flamingo that gained widespread attention online during
Hurricane Idalia
After being swept to Tampa Bay by fierce winds, the individual was found after vanishing for two years.
The backstory
It has been nearly two years since Peaches the Flamingo first caught Tampa Bay’s eye.
“During Hurricane Idalia, people will recall a group of migratory flamingos getting swept up in the storm,” stated Julie Wraithmell, who serves as the Executive Director for Audubon Florida.
Several of these birds, which included a male flamingo subsequently named Peaches, ended up in the Bay Area.
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“The anglers who were fishing from their boat found and rescued it, then took it to rehabilitation until it was fit for release. We collaborated with Audubon Florida and our colleagues at Zoo Miami to tag this bird so we could gather additional data about how things might turn out for it,” explained Wraithmell.
He was last seen in October 2023 around Fort DeSoto before vanishing without a trace. Over the following one and a half years, his location remained a mystery.
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A flamingo discovered near St. Pete Beach following Hurricane Idalia was later returned to its natural habitat.
As Wraithmell from Audubon Florida pointed out, attaching tags to birds assists conservationists in gaining deeper insights into avian migratory routes and determining if rehabilitated birds survive for extended periods. However, this process relies heavily on the tagged bird being encountered once more by humans who then report the tag’s identification number.
What they’re saying
“One could infer that the chances of mentioning one of those groups aren’t particularly high. It’s somewhat akin to sending a letter in a bottle out into the vast sea of migration, with hopes that it washes ashore at some point and someone discovers it,” Wraithmell explained.
However, that wasn’t the situation with Peaches.
A few weeks ago, scientists in Mexico counted almost 15,000 flamingo nests throughout the Yucatán Peninsula when they noticed something unusual among one of the birds. This particular flamingo had a blue band with the code USO2 circling his leg; this identifier corresponds to what we know as Peaches’ tag number. Interestingly enough, he represents only the second tagged flamingo found within U.S. borders.
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The tracker will continue focusing on ‘Peaches the flamingo’ as signs are posted requesting people to keep their distance from the bird.
A tale of recovery,” Wraithmell said. “Flamingos were once common in Florida’s breeding grounds. Around 1900, they were hunted extensively for their meat and feathers. However, significant progress has been achieved in restoring wetlands, which we hope will make the environment welcoming enough for these birds to come back and possibly reproduce again in coming years.
The Source
The narrative for this piece was compiled by Jordan Bowen from FOX 13.
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