American Flamingo

How to find it

Be realistic: nothing says flamingos can be expected anywhere in Costa Rica. The 2024 bird was a coastal stop at a Caribbean beach and river mouth near Moín, not a standard reserve visit. If you are curious, look at estuaries and lagoons, where a wader that filters food from muddy bottoms suits shallow water. Authorities asked people to keep a safe distance, not to approach it with boats or loose dogs, and not to feed or disturb it. Reports from SINAC staff, border police, municipal police, birdwatchers and local residents all helped track this one.

How to recognise it

The American Flamingo is a large wading bird, about 120 to 145 cm tall across its range, with mostly pink to reddish plumage.

Wing coverts: red.

Flight feathers: black.

Bill: pink and white with a large black tip.

Legs: entirely pink.

Plumage colour runs from pale pink to deep crimson, and the shade depends on the pigments in the algae and crustaceans the bird eats. Adults are much pinker than the paler Greater Flamingo of the Old World. The American is the largest flamingo in the Americas, while the Greater is the largest in the world.

What it sounds like

Recording: Konshau Duman, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Across its range, flamingos usually feed in flocks in shallow, salty lagoons. A bird filters muddy bottom sediment and water, taking insects, small shrimp, tiny plants, diatoms and other algae. In flight they stretch the neck out and fly in straggling lines. The single Costa Rican bird was tame, one of the reasons given later for keeping it in care, and it stayed on the Caribbean coast long after its arrival.

Where it lives

Across its range the species uses shallow lakes and coastal waters, and feeds best in very salty or alkaline lagoons. A SINAC biologist named estuaries and salt flats as typical coastal habitat. Its usual range excludes Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

In Costa Rica, the 2024 bird was on the Caribbean coast of Limón province. It first appeared at Moín beach, then at the mouth of the Estero Negro. News coverage also mentioned images of flamingos at Sarapiquí, in Heredia province.

When to see it

There is no season to plan around. A regional SINAC director said the species is not present in Costa Rica, even in the migration season, and the 2024 bird was a surprise first record.

Similar birds

Many people call the Roseate Spoonbill a flamingo, and both are pink wading birds. The easiest clue is the flamingo's dark outer wing feathers. The flamingo also has a longer neck, longer legs and a very different bill, while a spoonbill has a spoon-shaped bill.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican media call it flamenco americano, and also flamenco del Caribe. The larger Old World species is called flamenco común.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list places it in category A, and a SINAC biologist classes it as accidental: rare, and it does not breed or settle in Costa Rica.