Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Flamingos hatch on Tortola for the first time in over 70 years

Flamingo chicks have hatched on Tortola for the first known time in more than seven decades. They were recently discovered at the Josiah’s Bay pond.

This is according to the Marine Director at the H Lavity Stoutt Community College, Dr Lianna Jarecki who told BVI News she believes the chicks were hatched around late July into early August of this year.

She said the parents of the chicks are from Necker Island. They are said to occasionally travel to ponds at Josiah’s Bay or Belmont to feed before returning to the private island.

“This year in February/March, there were a lot of flamingoes in Josiah’s Bay pond. It was full and I live just where you can see Josiah’s Bay pond from the hill and I noticed that they started building nests. So they built about 12 nests and started laying eggs. But then the pond started drying up to nothing and then the flamingos started flying away. But they still had eggs on the nests,” Dr Jarecki said.

She added: “Before these rains, I got a call from the National Parks Trusts saying that someone had seen some tall grey birds walking around Josiah’s Bay. So I went down there and sure enough, they were three nearly-fledged flamingo chicks that were walking around, looking like they would start flying within a week or two. But they weren’t flying yet, so they had to be born at Josiah’s Bay pond.”

A mystery to their survival


Dr Jarecki said it is a mystery as to how the chicks survived the dry conditions without the presence of their parents since flamingo chicks are known to heavily rely on both parents for survival.

“No egg can hatch just sitting in the hot sun unattended by a parent and I don’t believe a chick can grow up without being attended by its flamingo parent,” the Marine Director explained.

“I myself have no idea as to how they managed to hatch and grow up unless they were some nests somewhere. I couldn’t see them, but they are very colonial nesters … It is a mystery to me how they managed to survive that pond drying up and all the adults leaving,” she added.

Reason believed for the laying on Tortola


When asked what is the likely reason behind the flamingos laying eggs at the Josiah’s Bay pond, Dr Jarecki said it may be linked to the disruption of their environment on Necker Island due to the recent construction activity.

“The Necker Island’s population — because the ponds are so small there — those birds tend to fly around looking for other ponds to feed or to nest. Also, they have been breeding there so there’s a lot there for such a small pond,” Dr Jarecki stated.

“I think what we discovered when we were trying to figure out why they nested here in the first place this year is that Necker Island was doing some construction near the pond and that was disturbing some of the flamingos, so that is probably why they went out looking for another spot in the first place,” she explained.

Disappearance in the 1940’s caused by hunting


Dr Jerecki also explained the reason behind the disappearance of the flamingos in the territory in the 1940s. She pointed to historical data which proves that flamingos once lived and bred on Tortola.

“Flamingos are native to the British Virgin Islands and throughout the Caribbean and the last recorded flamingos in the British Virgin Islands that were from the natural population disappeared in the 1940s. They were being hunted for sport and their eggs were collected and it left disturbance,” she said.

‘Flamingo Pond’


“There are some evidence that they nested on Tortola just from historical pond names like there’s a big pond at Cox Heath that was used as dump and filled in so you don’t even know there was a pond there anymore. But it was called Flamengo Pond and typically ponds are only called flamingo ponds if flamingoes bred there,” she further said.

Resurgence in the 1990’s


After a nearly 50-year absence of the flamingos in the territory, she said a collaborative effort was made to revive their population in the 1990s.

She said Guana Island WildLife Sanctuary partnered with the Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo and the National Parks Trust and imported eight flamingoes to do what she described as ‘a test run’ in the 1990.

“They did all right. Then in 1991, that’s when they brought 20 flamingos in … and those 20 were released into the wild on Anegada.”

Flamingos are protected by the Commission for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) so Dr Jerecki said the birds brought into the territory in the nineties needed to have been born in a zoo to be legally allowed to enter the territory’s borders.

Additionally, she said that once transported from the Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo, they could not have landed in another country before arriving in the BVI, or they would have been protected under CITES and therefore forbidden entry into the territory.

The birds had, therefore, been flown into the BVI via a private jet.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×