TAMPA, Fla. — The name of the giant flamingo at Tampa International Airport has been announced as "Phoebe," the airport tweeted on Thursday.
37,000+ VOTES ARE IN AND THE WINNER IS PHOEBE 🦩
— Tampa International Airport ✈️ (@FlyTPA) January 5, 2023
😱 We received 65,000+ entries in our Name the Flamingo contest
🗳️ Public voting took place last weekend on the finalists
🏆 Bryan M., the winner of our contest, will receive the prizes from @silver_airways and @BuschGardens pic.twitter.com/w04gOPLv5s
The contest received over 65,000 entries and 37,000 votes from around the world.
Here were the three finalists:
- Cora - Submitted by Glorianne P.: "Because the official name of the art piece is ‘Home’, we can expand on that and consider the phrase ‘Home is Where the Heart is.’ Cora is short for Corazon, which translates to heart in Spanish."
- Finn - Submitted by Braxton W.: "Finn the flamingo has the perfect ring to it. Every time I see a flamingo, it looks like they have fins on their feet that they forgot to take off. It always makes me laugh."
- Phoebe - Submitted by James M.: "A play on Phoenicopterus – the flamingo’s scientific name ‘Phoebe’ is also a playful alliterative to flamingo and means brilliantly inquisitive. The overall ‘Home’ sculpture is literally brilliant and reveals the flamingo’s inquisitiveness as it hunts for food in the shallows.
Voters were able to choose one of the three names at NameTheFlamingo.com between Friday, December 30 and 11:59 p.m. on Monday, January 2, 2023.