Miami is asking Tallahassee to give Florida a pinker state bird.<\/p>\n
City Commissioners voted last month to urge the Legislature to replace the relatively ordinary mockingbird with the American flamingo, reviving a proposal passed overwhelmingly<\/a> in the House this year before dying in the Senate.<\/p>\n Commissioner Ralph Rosado sponsored the resolution calling for the change. It passed unanimously. WLRN<\/a> first reported on the vote.<\/p>\n The vote came almost exactly three months after Miami-Dade Commissioners approved related legislation<\/a> to designate the flamingo as the county\u2019s official bird, citing the species\u2019 ties to Florida wildlife and tourism, among other things.<\/p>\n Florida lawmakers came close to doing the same statewide during the 2026 Session.<\/p>\n In February, the House approved a bill (HB 11<\/a>) by Republican Reps. Chip LaMarca of Lighthouse Point and Jim Mooney of Islamorada.<\/p>\n Pensacola Republican Rep. Alex Andrade, who has called for the pelican<\/a> to be designated the state\u2019s Northwest fishing bird, cast the only opposing vote.<\/p>\n HB 11 would have named the flamingo as Florida\u2019s state bird and the Florida scrub-jay its state songbird. Supporters contended that the flamingo is far more recognizable as a Florida fowl than the mockingbird, which is the state bird of four other states<\/a>, and that the scrub-jay is appropriate because it\u2019s the only bird species found exclusively in Florida.<\/p>\n But the bill died after reaching the Senate, where its identical upper-chamber companion (SB 150<\/a>) by Doral Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez languished unheard after clearing the first of three committees to which it was referred.<\/p>\n The result preserved a designation the mockingbird has held since 1927.<\/p>\n Similar bills LaMarca, Mooney and Miami Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia carried in 2025 met the same fate<\/a>. Mooney told Florida Politics then that his proposal connected the flamingo\u2019s continued presence to Everglades restoration while highlighting the scrub-jay\u2019s shrinking habitat.<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a0flamingos are staying around<\/a>\u00a0because the environmental work in the Everglades has finally started to turn a corner and allow fresh water to flow south into the Florida Bay. The scrub-jay, it\u2019s under assault from development,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s bigger than just the birds. It\u2019s about continuing to preserve our green space and wetlands, which are massive ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n Miami\u2019s resolution<\/a> describes flocks of flamingos inhabiting the Keys and Florida Bay in the 1800s before hunting eliminated them from the state. Captive breeding and migration subsequently restored their presence.<\/p>\n Efforts to replace the mockingbird with the scrub-jay date back decades. Students pushed for the change in the 1990s, drawing opposition from influential then-National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer. At a 1999 House committee hearing<\/a>, Hammer said that the scrub-jay\u2019s habit of begging for food was \u201clazy\u201d and showed \u201ca welfare mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n