Caribbean Flamingos Return to Cozumel After Months
Caribbean flamingos on the island of Cozumel - Photo by YingnaCai/Shutterstock.com
After months away in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Caribbean flamingos are back on the island of Cozumel.
When the hurricane struck the region last fall, the island’s Caribbean flamingos - also known as American flamingos - vanished.
Caribbean flamingos tend to spend the colder months of the year on the island, and they were first seen there this winter season in September 2024: three young fabulous fowls meandering along the beaches near the Xtacún lagoon. But their time at Punta Sur Park, their common hangout on Cozumel, didn’t last long.
“After the impact of the hurricane in October, the flamingos migrated to other areas, disappearing from the park for several months,” Juanita Alonso Marrufo, the head of Cozumel Parks the Museums Foundation (FPMC), told Cozumel News this week.
The flamingos started to show themselves again in mid-January, confirming that their absence was temporary. Only a small group was noticed initially, but their population has steadily grown under the eye of local environmental authorities.
Caribbean flamingos on the island of Cozumel - Photo by YingnaCai/Shutterstock.com
The lagoons of Cozumel have entertained Caribbean flamingos for a decade after they went missing from the area for the same amount of time. In 2015, a 16-flamingo colony was spotted on the island, the first sighting of its kind since 2005.
It was the weather that caused that displacement, too. A busy hurricane and winter storm season ushered the flamingos away from the island now 20 years ago. It took 10 years for them to be seen on Cozumel again, and it has been a slow build to the numbers that were seen prior to Hurricane Milton. Fortunately, the recent renaissance took much less than a decade.
More energy has gone into conserving the pink bird in the Yucatan in recent years. In 2024, multiple large Mexican charities announced a partnership aimed at protecting the peninsula’s Caribbean flamingos. These added efforts have helped with the push to observe and categorize the fabulous fowls returning to Cozumel.
“Coordinated work allows us to obtain better results in the protection of our species and ecosystems,” Alonso Marrufo said.
Flamingos in this part of the world have been victims of storm displacement plenty lately. Dozens of flamingos were seen throughout parts of the United States that you would never expect to spot one outside of a zoo in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia in 2023. New York, Massachusetts, Texas, Ohio, Virginia, and more enjoyed wild flamingos in their waterways.
These phenomena are rare and only occur in unique circumstances, such as severe storms. But as climate change continues to bring evermore intense weather events at increasing rates, it might become less unusual to catch a glimpse of a free-range flamingo in an unlikely location.
