SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) - A flamingo was spotted in the South Bay earlier this week and so far local animal organizations don’t know why the bird arrived in Imperial Beach.
News 8 Photojournalist Charlie Landon captured the wayward bird in flight, soaring above the southern side of the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Imperial Beach, thousands of miles away from South America or the Caribbean Islands where flamingos typically breed and live.
“I'm guessing it's probably an escapee though it's unusual because it can fly and most of the birds in captivity have clipped wing,” said Lorena Warner-Lara. “So it's just one of those mysteries.”
Warner-Lara works at the Tijuana Estuary in Imperial Beach and also said she hasn't heard of a flamingo in any of our marshes and has always seen them at the zoo.
The wading bird was first spotted Tuesday, February 13 and though the flamingo has a tag, no one knows where it came from. The San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld and the Living Coast Discovery Center all report that the bird doesn't belong to them.