Flamingo (Florida)

Flamingo is a small settlement on the coast at the eastern end of the only road running through the Everglades National Park. It is the only settlement within the park, and consists of little more than the Flamingo Lodge[?] hotel, a cafe, a chandler and a few houses. There is also a seasonal caravan park.

The settlement is so called because the coast at this point provides the only place in the USA where Caribbean Flamingo can be seen on migration. This large bird was split as a separate species in 2002, having previously been considered a race of Greater Flamingo. The situation is complicated by the regular presence on the mudflats of escaped birds from the nearby racecourse.

Flamingo provides the only road access to the sea in the Everglades National Park. A track called the Snake Bight Trail[?] (not "bite") provides an alternative pedestrian access to the sea to the east of Flamingo, but its two-mile length is notorious for the number and ferocity of the mosquitos.