Fugitive Flamingo “Pink Floyd” Spotted in Texas

Flamingo No. 492 is quite the traveler. 

The African flamingo escaped from a Kansas zoo in 2005. It's since been spotted in Wisconsin, Louisiana, and Arkansas. And now, a fisherman just captured the flamingo on video on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department tweeted news of the return of No. 492 – aka “Pink Floyd” –  to the Lone Star State, which the bird visits every few years: "Looks like Pink Floyd has returned from the 'dark side of moon!'" 

(That’s a reference to Pink Floyd's best-known album.)

Pink Floyd, identified by the number on its leg band, and a fellow flamingo flew the coop at Kansas’s Sedgwick County Zoo on a stormy night in June 2005. Staff forgot to clip their wings, which would have prevented their escape.

The two flamingos, along with 38 others, had been born in Africa, then shipped to the Kansas zoo in 2004. Nobody has reported seeing the other zoo escapee since.

David Foreman, the Texas fisherman, knows the birds rarely appear outside of Florida. Take it from him: He grew up in a bird sanctuary.

“My brain was telling me, ‘No way you’re looking at a flamingo,’ but my eyes were telling me, ‘That’s what it is, there’s no mistaking it,’” Foreman tells The New York Times. “It’s almost like nature’s way of putting me in my place: Mr. Knows-Everything thinks there’s no flamingos in Texas? Have a look at this.”

Photo from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.