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Posted by Judd Patterson on 12:26:56 05/15/14
In Reply to: Flamingo migration in Doral on the news posted by Eloso Coddence
Yes, a large flock of American Flamingos has been located in Palm Beach County. The high count was 147, but the size fluctuated on almost every visit. The recent articles that many of you have seen included bad or partial information. Those in the project were aware of older reports of over 1,000 flamingos in Florida Bay, but the reporter took some liberties when crafting a catchy title.
The project started with several biologist in the National Park Service who wanted to determine the provenance, habitat usage, and movement patterns of American Flamingos in Florida. We partnered with several experts at Zoo Miami, Tropical Audubon, the South Florida Water Management District, and other experts to finalize funding, capture techniques, and permits to place GPS transmitters on several American Flamingos.
We expected to work in Everglades National Park, but additional partners provided new information that took us in a completely different direction. We were really caught off guard by the size of the flock that was feeding happily within the interior of Palm Beach County. Many of the birds were pale, but several very bright pink birds were intermixed. They flew widely around the area, and many interesting behaviors including fighting, mating, and nightly roosting were observed.
At the moment, we still hold the transmitters: a testament to the difficulty of catching birds with extremely passive techniques intended to keep the birds safe. We hope to relocate the flock, but as of Tuesday night they have abandoned their location. We are not sure if this is due to a recent spike in trespassing visitors or a natural movement to new feeding areas. There were plans being put in place to allow visitor access, but obviously those are on hold while the flock is missing. If you see a flamingo anywhere in South Florida, we'd love to hear the report. With a little luck it may soon be possible to log onto a website and see recent tracking information for one or more of our American Flamingos. Maybe some of the mysteries of our forgotten wading bird will be revealed!
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