Flamingos

FLAMINGOS AT MAIMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

By: Glenn Wilsey, Sr.

I’ve been asked on many airboat tours and by e-mail, "where can we go to find Flamingos in South Florida?" Well, I have to tell you, it’s not hard to find Flamingos in South Florida. In many brochures about Florida you see Flamingos on the covers and also on many pages inside the brochures. So, it’s easy to see why people automatically think that Flamingos are flying around everywhere you look in South Florida.

Hollywood also likes to feature Flamingos in movies which are filmed here in South Florida. The hit, 1980’s TV series, "Miami Vice" showed Flamingos flying in the opening scenes of the show. Almost any advertisement for Miami Beach has Flamingos in it. I jumped in my car and drove to Miami Beach and started looking for Flamingos. I parked my car and took a walk down Washington Boulevard. I found Flamingos as soon as I’d walked just one block, but no "live" Flamingos. I saw Flamingos painted on the windows of restaurants and stores. I found Flamingos in souvenir shops, on post cards and there were plenty of Flamingos made of ceramic and plastic. I decided to expand my search by walking along the ocean side of A1A. As I walked south with the ocean on my left, I looked on my right and there they were, the biggest flock of Flamingos so far. They were made of neon and were hanging over hotels and restaurants all along Deco Drive. Again, my dreams of finding Flamingos in South Florida were crushed. With great, although feigned disappointment, I went back to my car and drove west, off of Miami Beach and back towards my home in the Everglades. Anyone who knows me, knows I grew up in South Florida. With that said, I knew that I would only find ceramic, plastic and neon Flamingos on Miami Beach. As I headed west on 836 towards Miami International Airport, I had a friend waiting for me, I kept an eye out for flocks of flamingos. Didn’t see any. I got to the airport a bit early and decided to wait inside. Looking across the room I saw a billboard which advertised many places to visit in the Miami area. Wow, right at the top was a picture of a flock of Flamingos. How ironic, the elusive "Flamingos" were right there, in the lobby of the airport. With my friend now in the car with me, I decided to take a slower and more scenic route home. Now, off the expressway, and looking for flamingos with two sets of eyes, I drove through Coconut Grove, Westwood and Western Miami. I did notice more flamingos and pointed them out to my friend. These Flamingos, as you might guess, were as plastic as those I’d seen on Miami Beach. Yep that’s right, more plastic Flamingos, standing tall in the front yards and flower gardens of many residents all over south Florida.

OK, OK time to get real.

I’ve only seen "real, live, wild" Flamingos in Florida on Key Biscayne.

I took my son and my wife to key Biscayne for a fun day on the beach. Crandon beach was (and still is) a great place to take the family because there was plenty of white sand beach and clear water. During low tide we could walk way out onto a shallow sand bar. While we were walking along the sand bar we looked up and three Flamingos flew by and landed about fifty yards in front of us. Those were the only Flamingos that I have ever seen in the wild. The only reason we were lucky enough to see the Flamingos on the sand bar (in the wild) was because they were from the Crandon Park Zoo. The Flamingos at the Crandon park zoo were free to fly around and would frequent the sand bar every day. Because they were from the zoo they really weren’t wild flamingos but they were wild enough because you could see them outside of captivity. Still, they lived at the zoo and would return to the zoo when they’d had enough of the sand bar. I have talked to many people who say they have seen flamingos in the wild. Everybody agrees, however, that these were escaped flamingos, either from the Crandon Park Zoo on Key Biscayne or from the famous flock that was shown at the beginning of "Miami Vice." That flock had lived in the infield at the Hialeah Park horse racing track and later was moved to Parrot Jungle. That flock had hundreds of birds that disappeared in 1992 due to Hurricane Andrew. As a side note, Parrot Jungle has since moved to Watson Island, across from the port of Miami where the cruise ships leave from.

I called Everglades National Park to ask what they knew about flamingos, but one person told me to call another and they said to call another and then that person said they would have someone call me back. I checked my phone all-day and only had one missed call. They left no message, I wanted to call back but my phone said the number was not known. I don’t think it was a national park representative because I’m sure they would have left a message. I didn’t call back anymore because I didn’t have time. So, where did the flamingos come from?

It is said, that, in the early 1800’s there were small flocks of nesting flamingos in the Keys near Florida Bay, but no permanent flocks have been documented.

While looking for information on this story, I saw that John James Audubon himself had seen a flock of flamingos while on a visit to the Florida Keys. He never painted flamingos for some reason and I never could find out why, because they are such beautiful birds.

When Flamingos visit Florida it is usually because of bad conditions in other parts of the Caribbean or the Yucatan. These conditions could be one of two things, food supply or drought. When this happens the Flamingos will fly to other destinations looking for food. Florida Bay and the backcountry areas of the mangrove forest have a high saline content. These areas make a great place for flamingos to feed because of the high concentrations of shrimp, small insects and algae. Flamingos wave their beaks back and forth, filtering the water out of their beaks, catching small invertebrates. The high carotene content in the food in the backcountry bays give the Flamingos the pink to bright red colored feathers they are known for.

My parents owned a marina in Key Largo and they would take me fishing in Florida Bay and in the back country (The mangrove forest) of Flamingo which is a popular part of Everglades National Park at the southern most part of the Florida mainland. I would always look for Flamingos because of the name of the area we were fishing in. Yes of course I would look up and point all excited and say "LOOK, LOOK !!!!!!! it’s a flock of ... "AWWWWW, never mind, it’s just a flock of Rosette spoonbills." To me, the Rosette spoonbill is one of the most spectacular birds in the everglades but when I was a boy I was always disappointed that I didn’t see flamingos. The Rosette spoonbill also gets its bright red color from the carotene-rich food in the salty backcountry bays.

The truth about Flamingos is that there is a chance you may see Flamingos in Florida. The Flamingos you might see are called Caribbean Flamingos. The Caribbean Flamingos range anywhere from the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico to South Florida and down the Caribbean chain. It is a very small chance, though, because Florida is the northernmost point the flamingos might travel to but only when they can’t find food or the weather is too harsh in the more tropical areas that they prefer. So, if you come to Florida looking for Flamingos, all I can say is, follow the path I did and you will find all the ceramic, plastic, and neon Flamingos that you will care to see, and then some.

If you come to Florida looking for the wild life (besides me, I am the wild life too) just let me know and I’m sure I can send you in the right direction.

"REMEMBER, NATURE RULES !!!!!!!!!!! "

GATORMAN (Glenn W. Wilsey Sr.)

,,,((__>….zoooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmm

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