Flamingos are making a home in Florida again after 100 years – an ecologist explains why they may be returning for good

Peaches, who was blown into Florida by Hurricane Idalia in 2023, was sighted in Mexico in June 2025. Kara Durda/Audubon Florida

Hurricane Idalia blew a flamboyance, or flock, of 300-400 flamingos that was likely migrating between the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba off course in August 2023 and unceremoniously deposited the birds across a wide swath of the eastern United States, from Florida’s Gulf Coast all the way up to Wisconsin and east to Pennsylvania.

After Hurricane Idalia, more than 300 credible sightings of flamingos across the eastern U.S. were reported. Audubon Florida