Flamingo (!) Flies from Kansas to Texas

A flamingo that escaped from a Kansas zoo 17 years ago was spotted this week in Texas. The African flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) — known as No. 492 because of the number on its leg band and later named Pink Floyd — was spotted near Port Lavaca, Texas.

Mr. Floyd flew the coop with another jailbreaking flamingo during a storm in 2005, fleeing Sedgwick County Zoo of Wichita. Apparently the zoo had neglected to trim the feathers of the birds, a routine and reportedly painless procedure done to prevent flight. The other bird has not been seen since.

Pink Floyd has been spotted a number of times since his escape – in Texas, Louisiana, and as far north as Wisconsin. He is sometimes cavorting with other wild flamingos, including a Caribbean flamingo that was likely blown north in a tropical storm.

“Even though they’re two different species, they are enough alike that they would have been more than happy to see each other,” Scott Newland, the curator of birds at the zoo, told the New York Times in 2018. “They’re two lonely birds in kind of a foreign habitat. They’re not supposed to be there, so they have stayed together because there’s a bond.”
The zoo has not attempted to recapture Pink Floyd, as they fear there’s no way to do it without disturbing other wildlife. Anyway flamingoes can live into their forties in the wild.

So shine on, you crazy diamond.

CW39 Houston has recent footage of the escapee here: youtube.com/watch?v=xPSwhydolLo.

Photo credit: John Humbert