Hurricane Idalia blows small flocks of flamingos towards the Outer Banks
A small flock of flamingos has been blown towards the Outer Banks due to the impact of Hurricane Idalia.
According to reports from ABC News, more than 150 of the flamingos have ended up in unlikely states like North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and even Texas and Ohio, since Hurricane Idalia passed through the U.S. last week.
After Idalia made landfall near Big Bend, Florida, bird enthusiasts began seeing reports of flamingos all over the state, Nate Swick, digital communications manager for the American Birding Association and host of the American Birding Podcast, told ABC News.
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The birds likely got caught in Hurricane Idalia as they were traveling across the Yucatan Peninsula, the experts told ABC News.
“A birder in North Carolina found the first flock of wild flamingos ever spotted in the state -- in salt marshes in the Outer Banks, exactly where he expected to find them because they are attracted to large bodies of water,” Swick explained.
Those flamingos were still seen in the Outer Banks as of Tuesday.
For some of the birds who caught a ride on Hurricane Idalia, it may be a one-way journey. But flamingos are capable flyers and can travel for long distances, so they will likely soon return home.
“The hope is that a lot of these birds are close enough to their breeding grounds that they’ll be able to return there,” Swick told ABC News.
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