Florida Bill Aims To Make The American Flamingo The New State Bird

A bill working its way through the Florida legislature could change the state bird after nearly 100 years, from the northern mockingbird to the American flamingo.

Florida Senate Bill 880, introduced by State Sen. Ileana Garcia (R-Miami), would name the American flamingo as the state bird, and would make the Florida scrub-jay the state’s official songbird.

The northern mockingbird has been Florida’s state bird since 1927, and it’s also the state bird for several other states, including Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee.

If the bill passes, Florida would be the first and only state to designate the American flamingo as state bird. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the American flamingo is considered native to Florida though the species disappeared from the state around the turn of the 20th century. New breeding colonies were established in South Florida after around 1925.

Now, FWC says at least some of the flamingos in Florida have arrived from outside the state. The species is found across the Caribbean.

The Florida scrub-jay, meanwhile, is the only bird species endemic to Florida, according to FWC. The threatened and protected species is found sand pine and xeric oak scrub, and scrubby flatwoods in the “highest and driest” parts of the state, including “ancient sandy ridges that run down the middle of the state, old sand dunes along the coasts, and sandy deposits along rivers in the interior of the state.”

If approved and signed into law, the new designations would go into effect on July 1.