Seattle-bound flight attendant thinks fast to save rare flamingo eggs

SEATTLE — An Alaska Airlines flight attendant came to the rescue when a passenger asked for help keeping flamingo eggs warm.

The passenger turned out to be an official from Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo transporting six rare Chilean flamingo eggs in an incubator.

The incubator, the zoo employee explained, had stopped working and the eggs needed to stay warm.

That’s when the flight attendant – whom Alaska only identifies by her first name, Amber – rushed back to the galley.

She filled some rubber gloves with warm water which the zoo official carefully made a nest to surround the eggs.

Other passengers pitched in, lending their coats and scarves for added insulation to coddle the eggs.

Throughout the five hour flight, Amber and other crew members checked on the eggs, and replaced the gloves whenever they started cooling down.

“I’m glad to help,” Amber said in a release from the airline.

Fast forward several months and Woodland Park Zoo invited Amber and her granddaughter Sunny to the zoo to “meet and greet” the six chicks that hatched from those eggs.

Amber and Sunny were able to see the long-legged chicks, sporting gray feathers. The birds get their distinctive pink color when they become adults.

This is the first time the zoo has had flamingos hatch since 2016. Their flock now number 49 at the zoo.

“We are forever grateful for the heroic measures Amber took to help keep our precious flamingo eggs warm and viable,” said Woodland Park Zoo’s Gigi Allianic. “This means the world to our zoo family. They would have been lost if you hadn’t gone above and beyond for us.”

The chicks were named in a public poll: Magdalena, Amaya, Rosales, Gonzo, Bernardo.

But Amber got the special honor to name the sixth chick – dubbing it Sunny, after her granddaughter.

“Having baby Sunny meet flamingo Sunny was just wonderful, I am excited to see them both grow up,” Amber said.

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