What the Flock? Flamingos Are Sabotaging Risotto in Italy

Published July 14, 2025

Move over pigeons — there’s a new feathery menace in town, and this one’s got legs for days.

In the picturesque rice fields of Ferrara, Italy — aka the land of wine, romance, and silky risotto — a pink uprising is causing chaos. Flamingos, yes, actual flamingos, have decided these lush northern paddies are their new vacation homes, and Italian rice farmers are losing their collective marbles.

See, to grow that creamy, dreamy risotto rice, farmers flood the fields in late spring. But now? Those fields have become a five-star flamingo buffet. The birds aren’t even eating the rice — no, they’re just stomping around like they own the place, kicking up soil with their webbed feet and slurping up algae, insects, and tiny molluscs like it’s bottomless brunch.

Risotto vs. Ruckus

Although the rice seedlings are (technically) untouched, the flamingos' spa-day foot treatments are messing with the delicate growing process, and farmers are not tickled pink about it.

Desperate to protect their crops, they’ve tried everything short of a full-blown Italian opera: blaring truck horns, banging on barrels, even firing cannons. But these bold birds? Not even flinching. They’ve seen worse at spring break in the Galápagos.

So now the fate of risotto — that creamy, comforting carb cuddle in a bowl — hangs in the balance.