Frankie the Flamingo Flees England for New Life in France

On a windy Sunday morning in Cornwall, a young flamingo took flight from a local sanctuary. By the following day, she had crossed the Channel and arrived on Île Aganton along the north coast of France, 130 miles from where she began. 

The adventurous bird, a female named Frankie, hatched at Paradise Park Wildlife Sanctuary on July 1. When Frankie flew the coop, the sanctuary issued an alert: “On Sunday morning Frankie managed to take flight from the walled garden at Paradise Park in Hayle despite having clipped feathers.”

‘Managed to take flight’ admits to a mystery – how could she fly with a clipped wing? As it happens, clipped feathers prevent takeoff, but not flight itself. It is believed that a blustery wind got her airborne; after that there was no stopping her.

She has stopped in France and by all accounts is doing well. She is feeding, preening, and even socializing a bit. “She has been seen with other birds which will give her some company,” the sanctuary notes on its website, “and all the evidence that we have seen of her in France shows a well-adjusted, well-fed bird doing extremely well.”

That’s good news because she likely won’t be returned to Cornwall, unless she manages to return on her own. Any (human assisted) movement of wild animals between the UK and the European Union is a bureaucratic nightmare since Brexit. Frankie’s possible exposure to avian flu complicates matters further.

Hopefully Frankie will eventually hook up with one of the flocks of wild flamingos in Europe (for one, there’s a sizable population in the Camargue Regional National Park in the south of France). She might even find a mate. The sky’s the limit for a bird that can fly with clipped wings.

Frankie’s escape was captured on video in a brief clip here.

Photo credit: Paradise Park Wildlife Sanctuary