Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Meets Baby Flamingos Hatched from the Eggs She Saved on Flight

A flock of flamingos had to wait until they hatched to meet their hero.

According to an Alaska Airlines press release, one of the airline’s flight attendants, Amber, rescued six rare Chilean flamingo eggs on an August flight from Atlanta to Seattle. After months of waiting for the eggs to hatch, Amber recently met the birds she rescued and learned that one of the flamingos was named in her honor.

Amber recalled for Alaska Airlines how the unconventional flamingo rescue began. While working as a flight attendant on an August flight from Atlanta to Seattle, Amber responded to a passenger’s emergency plea for help.

“The passenger pressed the call button and asked if I would help him keep some eggs warm,” she said in the post.

The individual in need was a zookeeper transporting flamingo eggs in an incubator from Zoo Atlanta to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. A zoo official told Amber that the incubator had failed and they needed help keeping the eggs warm to protect them.

Alaska Airlines flight attendant Amber meets one of the flamingos she rescued on a flight.

Alaska Airlines

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Amber sprung into action. She solved the problem by filling rubber gloves with “warm water”, which a zookeeper placed around the eggs. Other passengers offered their coats and scarves to provide “extra insulation” for the makeshift nest.

“I was glad to help,” the flight attendant noted, adding that she and other crew members constantly checked the flamingo eggs during the flight and changed gloves “as the water cooled.”

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The flamingo eggs must have made it off the plane, but it wasn’t until months later that Amber found out what ended up happening to the flamingos inside the eggs.

Amber recently received a call from the zoo asking if she wanted to meet the flamingos she had rescued, to which she agreed and brought her granddaughter Sunny.

A photo of one of the flamingos that Amber and her granddaughter met at the zoo.

Alaska Airlines

“I was honored and happy that the chicks hatched – all six of them!” she said, according to the press release.

Amber and Sunny met the baby flamingos thanks to the Woodland Park Zoo, which offered the couple an exclusive tour along with a “meet and greet” with the chicks. Photos shared by Alaska Airlines show Amber bending down to get a closer look at the animals with her granddaughter.

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Woodland Park Zoo’s Gigi Allianic shared in a statement: “We are forever grateful for the heroic measures Amber took to help keep our precious flamingo eggs warm and viable. This means the world to our zoo family. She would be lost if you hadn’t He didn’t go above and beyond for us.”

Photo of Amber’s granddaughter ‘Sunny’ and the flamingo named after her ‘Sunny.’.

Alaska Airlines

To honor Amber’s dedication to animals, the zoo named one of the six flamingos after Amber’s granddaughter, Sunny.

“Having baby Sunny meet Sunny the flamingo was just beautiful,” Amber said, according to the post. “I’m excited to see them both grow up.”

A public poll helped determine the names of the other five flamingos: Magdalena, Amaya, Rosales, Gonzo and Bernardo. The zoo noted in a press release that the flamingos will eventually take on their signature pink hue as they age, and will join the zoo’s animal ambassador program, which promotes ways to support wildlife conservation.

The zoo noted that Chilean flamingos can be found throughout South America in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay.

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Source: HIS Education