Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Perhaps nothing better illustrates the flamingo’s status as a newcomer to the Venetian Lagoon – where the Italian city of Venice is located – than the fact that the local dialect has no word for them.
But the pale pink birds – called fenicotteri in Italian – are flocking to Venice. Ecological efforts to restore damaged wetlands could help expand their habitat and possibly induce them to nest in the lagoon.
Flamingos usually nest in Spain and France. They started showing up in the vast Venetian Lagoon in the early 2000s, mostly in fishing valleys and mudflats in the lagoon’s furthest reaches, with only rare sightings in the city’s historic canals that are popular with tourists.
Environmentalists say their arrival is a good sign of the lagoon’s health and suitability as a feeding ground.
Last year, the number of wintering flamingos in Venice peaked at a record of nearly 24,000, which was 6,000 more than the previous year.
