Chilean Flamingo (Fernando)
Coyote Hills Regional Park, Fremont, California, USA
April 2021
Member of the Flamingo Family
§A Flamboyance of Flamingos§
~True Bird Fact~ If you've never heard of flamingos before, here are some quick and fun flamingo facts: Fact 1: Flamingos have the greatest leg to body ratio of any bird. Fact 2: Flamingos get their distinctive pink coloration from their diet of algae and brine shrimp, which both have a lot of this reddish-pinkish pigment, beta carotene. Fact 3: Flamingo tongues were considered a delicacy in ancient Egypt.
But really, I should probably use this space to talk about why there is a Chilean Flamingo in the Bay Area, right? Let's get some things out of the way- he's the only one of his kind ANYWHERE near here. His usual range is mostly in Chile ('natch), which is 6000 miles away. He probably didn't just get lost. He's also probably not from a zoo, since he isn't banded. His name is Fernando and he just kind of hangs out.
Birders speculate that he might be from a private collection, but my favorite theory is that it's actually an escapee from Marine World, an amusement park that used to be in the area. Apparently the animals were transported by boat from the Hayward area up to their new home in Vallejo, providing him his opportunity to break free. There have been reports of sightings going all the way back to the 70's, which work with this timeline. Either way, he is clearly not a 'wild bird', so he sadly 'doesn't count' for birders. Really though, I think there should be more excitement for this. On the Wikipedia page for Chilean Flamingos there's a whole section about one who escaped and became a local celebrity in Great Salt Lake area. Step up Bay Area, there's a Flamingo here. We don't know how long we'll have him, and we're unlikely to see his kind here ever again. So show some respect!
