American Flamingo

The American flamingo is a large species of flamingo native to the West Indies, northern South America including the Galapagos Islands, and the Yucatan Peninsula, and is the only flamingo species that naturally inhabits North America. Also called the Caribbean flamingo, it is closely related to the greater flamingo and Chilean flamingo, with which it was formerly considered a single species before that treatment was found to lack supporting evidence. It is a cultural icon of Florida, where it was once abundant in the southernmost regions but was largely extirpated by 1900 and today survives there only as an uncommon visitor with a few small, potentially resident populations.