A flamingo in Rhode Island? Birders reporting 'unmistakable' find in Little Compton. What to know.

Even a flamingo knows that Rhode Island is, to borrow the state's new tourism marketing slogan, "all that" in the summer time.

In a very unusual event, birders are reporting spotting an America Flamingo at Briggs Marsh in Little Compton.

"Unmistakable. Large pink wading bird with long neck and black tail feathers, curved bill that is white and black ... We observed it wading and foraging for about 1.5-2 hrs in the marsh after initial sighting," a birder documented in eBird, a citizen science app managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The Rhode Island Audubon Society confirmed the sighting.

"Audubon staff believe the one spotted in RI is most likely the same bird that was visiting Cape Cod," Audubon spokeswoman Hope Foley said in an email.

What is a flamingo doing in Rhode Island and Massachusetts?

Over the past two months, there have been repeated sightings of a flamingo on Cape Cod.

Mark Faherty, science coordinator for the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, told The Cape Cod Time he believes the flamingo may be one of a group of birds that were scattered across the country after Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida in the summer of 2023. Flamingos were seen in at least 14 states, including North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri and Wisconsin, perhaps blown north by the powerful storm's winds.

The bird was first seen on June 2, and has been delighting birders when they catch a glimpse.

Avid Cape birder Mary Jo Foti, trips coordinator for the Cape Cod Bird Club, told the Cape Cod Times by email that she saw the American flamingo at Chapin Beach in Dennis earlier this week.

'My heart stopped for a beat'Another flamingo sighting at Cape Cod beach. See the photos

Foti also provided a wonderful narrative of her encounter:

"I couldn’t have been in a nicer place. I turned to scan the northern edge of the flat once more and the American Flamingo had simply materialized," she wrote to the Times in an email. "I never even saw it fly in. I think my heart stopped for a beat. The flamingo continued to move farther out with the receding tide line but fortunately, a handful of birders were able to get there before it disappeared into the shimmer."

Has there ever been a flamingo in Rhode Island before?

The Rhode Island Audubon Society didn't have information on hand about if there have been flamingos spotted in the Ocean State before.

But, there has been at least one other wild flamingo that made it to New England. In August 1964, the New York Times reported that a flamingo was spotted in Niantic, Connecticut.

“It was extraordinary to see one this far from its natural habitat of the West Indies and Bahamas,” Roger Tory Peterson told the New York Times. “However, one was reported earlier this summer at the Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge north of Atlantic City.