GAINESVILLE – Florida’s House voted late Wednesday to establish the American flamingo as the new state bird, a step toward knocking the mockingbird off its perch after nearly a century. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Senate will go along with the plan.
The House voted 112-1 to approve the bill. The Legislature has considered changing the state bird for at least five years. Some lawmakers wore pink clothing during the vote, including Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, who called it a “very Florida bill.”
Lawmakers couldn’t help themselves from slinging puns, asking about the bill’s pecking order and noting that supporters had been “wading” for the vote.
“Florida is one of the most unique places in the country,” said Rep. James ‘Jim’ Mooney, R-Key Largo. “Our ecosystems are extremely diverse. All of a sudden we have flamingos back.”
The bill in the Senate has to pass through two more committees before it faces a full Senate vote. Those hearings haven’t yet been scheduled.
Standing 5 feet tall and weighing in at around-the-same in pounds, the American flamingo made its great return almost three years ago, when Hurricane Idalia blew hundreds of them to the one of the only places that could handle their oddity: Florida, already home to swamp puppies and “the Florida man.”
In the past two sessions, a bill by Mooney ruffled the feathers of those who argued the mockingbird should remain Florida’s icon. This time around, he said, there wasn’t as strong opposition. It’s the furthest Mooney’s attempt has flown in the House. If it lands, the Florida scrub jay will be the state songbird alongside it.
Some legislators have raised concerns about the flamingo only representing a small part of the state because its range doesn’t extend much beyond South Florida, although a growing group of birds has been spending time at Merritt Island.
A Florida Lottery stand displays their logo in a Pilot Travel Center in Waldo, Fla. on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. The flamingo has been a key component of the Florida Lottery’s branding since 1988. Legistators are considering the flamingo to replace the mockingbird as Florida’s state bird for the third year in a row. (Kaley Mantz/Fresh Take Florida)
Rep. Robert Alexander ‘Alex’ Andrade, R-Pensacola posted on X that Florida’s state bird should be the pelican. He asked Mooney at a House hearing in December if he would consider making the pelican a co-official state bird and later mentioned a possible amendment to make the pelican the fishing bird. Andrade was the sole House member to vote no.
Though flamingos don’t flock to the Panhandle, their plume is in every grocery store and Publix in the state. The mascot of the Florida Lottery, smirking and blush pink, watches ticket-buyers like a hawk with each scratch-off.
Retro postcards feature flamingos sunbathing alongside tourists and preening like Miami influencers. They stand one-legged and plasticky in lawns statewide, and one 21-footer in polyester named Phoebe greets visitors at the central terminal in the Tampa International Airport.
Across the three committees who have heard the bill in the House and the Senate so far, there has only been one vote against. Rep. Monique Miller, R-Brevard, voiced concerns that elevating the status of the scrub jay alongside the flamingo would slow development across the state due to protections. She said she would have supported the flamingo alone. Mooney said he was more concerned about environmental degradation.
“I’m not trying to stop building,” he said. “I’m trying to make people hear we have precious items in front of us that are bigger than just a bird.”
Legislators have also questioned whether the big pink birds were native to the state. A new study from the University of Central Florida used genetics to show they are.
Over 10 years, scientists analyzed specimens across the bird’s range in Florida, the Caribbean and northern South America. The results supported the idea that flamingos are native to Florida.
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at zherukhamarta@ufl.edu.