A flamingo rescued as an exhausted young bird on a Menorcan beach more than a decade ago has been spotted, fully grown and pink, in the south of France.
Found on the beach
In August 2014, at the height of the tourist season, a young flamingo was found weak and struggling on Son Saura beach in Menorca. It still had the grey plumage of a juvenile, and experts from the environmental group GOB believe it had become separated from its flock during migration.
A month of care
GOB took the bird to its wildlife recovery centre, where it spent about a month regaining its strength before it was ready to return to the wild.
The release
The flamingo was released at the Salines de la Concepció, a wetland area in Menorca, in a moment captured on video. Before release it was fitted with a leg ring with a unique code, allowing birdwatchers and scientists to identify it from a distance without recapturing it.
Seen again in France
Years later, the ring was read in the south of France, more than 500 kilometres away. The bird was seen in 2022 and again in January 2026 in the area of the Rhône delta — the Camargue, one of the most important breeding grounds for greater flamingos in the Mediterranean. It now has the pink plumage of an adult.
Why ringing matters
Sightings like this are only possible because of ringing. Each time a ring is read and reported, researchers learn more about how birds move between wetlands, how long they live and which sites they depend on. Flamingos move widely between Spain, France, Italy and North Africa, and the Balearic wetlands are an important stopover for many of them.
For GOB, the story is also a reminder of the value of wildlife rescue: a bird that would almost certainly have died on the beach in 2014 is now part of one of Europe’s great flamingo colonies.
If you find an injured wild animal in Menorca, contact GOB’s wildlife recovery centre or call 112.
