An apparent sighting of a flamingo at Menasha's dam, but has yet to be confirmed by wildlife officials. (Courtesy: KJ Scherer)
MENASHA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A sight never before seen in Wisconsin.
On the final day of summer, five flamingoes were seen taking a dip on the shores of Lake Michigan in Port Washington.
But how did these tropical visitors make their way to America’s Dairyland?
“It’s a once in a lifetime occurrence and it happened because of this unusual coincidence,” said Stanley Temple, professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This is the first time a wild American Flamingo has been sighted in Wisconsin.
Temple says the main breeding area for flamingoes is down in near the Gulf of Mexico around the Yucatán Peninsula and western Cuba.
“It just so happened when the birds were on the move flying over the Yucatán strait, that open water between Yucatán and Cuba, the hurricane came through,” he said.
Hurricane Idalia’s strong winds pushed the birds north, according to Temple.
“Eventually making landfall in the U.S. and then again with tail winds, it brought them up to the Ohio Valley region and eventually all the way to Lake Michigan and Wisconsin,” said Temple.
There was another apparent sighting of a flamingo at Menasha’s dam over the weekend, but that sighting still has yet to be confirmed.
“There’s a little bit of controversy over the authenticity of that and maybe some details still that need to come to light, and even if it was legitimate, it was only present for a very short time and not seen again,” said Ryan Brady, conservation biologist with the Wisconsin DNR.
Brady says flamingoes have been seen in at least 12 states, like Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania, over the last month.
“Never before have we seen dozens or hundreds of them that have moved into the eastern United States,” said Brady.
Flamingoes aren’t the first rare bird sighting in Wisconsin this year.
In July, a roseate spoonbill was spotted at the Ken Euers Nature Area in Green Bay. Before this summer, the bird was last seen in the state 178 years ago.
“That one had a little bit to do with just dispersal patterns of what is a growing population of spoonbills in Florida,” said Brady.
As for the flamingoes ultimate fate, Brady says it’s hard to know when birds wander out of their range, but says there’s a good chance they’ll make their way back south as temperatures get colder.
“They can tolerate colder temperatures than a lot of people probably think, even though they’re tropical birds, so we shouldn’t have any immediate concerns over their ability to handle the weather,” he said.
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