Tiki the toucan flies free from wildlife sanctuary in Davie
Tiki the toucan is a free bird after escaping the Flamingo Gardens wildlife sanctuary.
With mango season in full swing, you might see Tiki feasting on the fruit, as she evades captors trying to lure her back home. The bird flew to freedom Saturday as a keeper cleaned her cage.
“Somehow it got past her and got out the door,” said Mike Ruggieri, director of animal care at Flamingo Gardens in Davie. “It sat up in some trees close by and then started hopping from tree to tree.”
And then she was gone. Tiki — known as a keel-billed, or rainbow-billed, toucan — had a full belly and couldn’t be beckoned back with food, he said.
Flamingo Gardens got the exotic bird when her owner surrendered her late last year. Tiki had been living in a home where a fellow toucan kept beating her up.
A special permit is not necessary to keep birds like Tiki if they are born in captivity, Ruggieri said.
Keel-billed toucans are native to Central American. They typically eat fruits and the occasional insect. Tiki is about the size of a crow or a small hawk.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, keel-billed toucans were first reported in the wild in 1972 in Broward and later in Miami-Dade. Florida has no reports of the nonnative bird breeding in the wild.
Tiki, who is about 2 years old, may be fighting off blue jays, crows or other birds curious about her, but she may also fall prey to bigger hawks or owls. And when the fruit-bearing season ends, she may have trouble finding food, he said.
Since her escape, it appears Tiki was recently spotted at Rexmere Village, a Davie housing community about three miles away.
Ruggieri says the best chance of catching the bird may be for Tiki to settle into someone’s backyard, get comfortable and perhaps be lured into a screened-in patio or other enclosure with fruits.
He hopes Tiki can be guided back home by the honking calls of flamingos and peacocks — her neighbors at Flamingo Gardens. If you see her, call Flamingo Gardens at 954-473-2955.