Record-breaking summer for Greater Flamingos in southern France

An estimated 50,000 adult and 12,000 young Greater Flamingos have been counted in the Camargue, southern France, which looks set to be a record-breaking tally.

The birds were counted by using aerial footage and the total includes some 25,000 nesting pairs. Recently, volunteers ringed 320 fledglings. In all, the Greater Flamingo count this summer is thought to be the highest ever logged since record keeping began 45 years ago. Eventually, many of these birds will migrate south and/or east, to Spain, Italy, Turkey and North Africa, for the winter.

It looks like a record-breaking summer for Greater Flamingo in the Camargue (Raffaele Cargnelutti).

Frédéric Lamouroux, the director of the nearby Pont de Gau Ornithological Park, told the Marseille newspaper La Provence in April that his site had witnessed nearly double the amount of flamingos as normal. During lockdown, rangers had also noted better numbers of other species, including Glossy Ibis.

Although more research is needed to confirm the theory, some experts suspect that the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic might be related to this year's record numbers of flamingo nests. Lamouroux suggests to La Provence that the lack of tourists – which typically descend on the marshes in the thousands from April to June – might have encouraged more of the birds to set up shop in the marshes.