Flamingo born at park where sibling Frankie escaped

Staff at a wildlife sanctuary are celebrating the hatching of a fluffy, white Caribbean flamingo chick.

The team at Paradise Park Wildlife Sanctuary in Hayle, Cornwall, welcomed the arrival, labeling it as "wonderful news". They said it was only the third Caribbean Flamingo chick to hatch at the park.

The chick is a sibling to Derek, who hatched and was hand-reared in 2019, and Frankie, who hatched in 2025 and was parent-reared before escaping and flying to France. It is being reared by its parents on their nest in the park's flamingo lagoon.

Caribbean flamingos are not born with their striking pink plumage. Their colour comes from the carotenoid pigments they eat as part of their diet.

Becky Waite, head of softbills at the park, said: "When a flamingo chick hatches it is not hidden in a nestbox or hut, they are visible on the nest mound from day one so it's not surprising that all the staff become attached to the new arrival very quickly."

The chick's sibling Frankie escaped and flew to France in November, with the last sighting of her in Finistère in December.

"Frankie captured our hearts and grew into a fine young bird," Waite said. "This year we hope the new chick will do the same, but we will, of course, do things differently so she stays with the flock."

Director of the park Alison Hales said: "We don't have a large flock of flamingos, and the new chick is only the third to have hatched at the park.

"Visitors can get really close to the lagoon where the birds build their nests out of mud, so they become fully engaged in the whole laying, incubating and hatching process which happens over the summer months.

"And there's a webcam so they can keep up with progress at home as well."

Curator David Woolcock said: "This is wonderful news, the chick hatched overnight and by 07:30 BST on Thursday was already looking out from beneath its mum's wing."

He added: "If all goes well, the chick will develop quickly, gain strength in its legs and start to venture off the nest in a few days.

"The parents feed [the chick] a special high-energy red liquid known as crop milk direct into the beak of the chick, and this is crucial for the first weeks of the chick's life before it transitions to eating adult food."

Waite said the Caribbean flamingo was under pressure from human disturbance and loss of habitat but had a large native range across the Americas, and there had been re-introductions in areas where habitat restoration had taken place.

Paradise Park said flamingos formed strong pair bonds, and just one egg was laid with both the male and female feeding the chick on a special "crop milk".

The birds can reach the age of 40 and are able to breed from age six.

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