Watch a flamingo grab breakfast in the Florida Keys

An American flamingo has been spotted in the Lower Keys, attracting nature fans and photographers who are watching the graceful bird spend some time in the shallow waters of the island chain.

In a video posted this week on the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex’s Facebook page, a flamingo feeds in the shallow waters oceanside off Sugarloaf Key. The spot is Sammy Creek Landing, a state wildlife and environmental area on Lower Sugarloaf Key.

“You’ll notice they move their feet to enhance their feeding opportunities,” the refuge wrote in the post. “We don’t get many flamingos visiting the Florida Keys so when they make their rare appearances they are appreciated by visitors and locals alike.”

The refuge calls the video two minutes of “tropical chill.”

The video was taken at about 9 a.m. Jan. 2 by Kristie Killam, a park ranger for the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges Complex.

Killam said she received an email from the Florida Keys Audubon Society that there had been a flamingo-sighting in the area and decided to check it out.

She kept her distance from the bird, describing it as skittish, and zoomed in.

“I was a football field away at least,” Killam said, adding that the bird appeared to be taking careful note of the humans that were around. “As far as we know, he or she was alone. Sometimes you just don’t know.”

Killam has seen flamingos in the Keys before. Last summer on Big Torch and Ramrod Keys there were five or six roaming about, she said.

“It’s really special,” Killam said, of a flamingo sighting. “I’m hopeful it is still there. It was there as recently as yesterday,” she said Tuesday.

“I saw it on New Year’s Day,” said Mark Hedden, executive director of the Florida Keys Audubon Society. “They’re not real common. You see them every year or two.”

Hedden said he believes the flamingo is a wild bird and could have been traveling solo.

“They travel alone all the time,” Hedden said. “I’ve probably seen 10 flamingos in the Lower Keys over the years.”

This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 6:15 AM.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.