This is a video of a hug with a pretty flamingo in the Caribbean that tells the tragic story of shrinking habitats for one of the world’s most iconic birds.

The flamingo in the Caribbean is not yet officially listed as endangered, yet on the ground people like Elly Albers who runs a bird century has seen an explosion in the number of birds in distress as their habitat dwindles.

The human demand for water has impacted on flamingos particularly, not just in the Caribbean but worldwide, and the prognosis is not good with global warming predicting even more loss of the wetland and marshland where they feed, breed, and make their homes.

Elly, aged 53, who comes from the town of Emmen in the Netherlands, did not set out to become a flamingo rescue when she moved to the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean Netherlands 30 years ago.

It is a Dutch island in the Caribbean Sea with a warm climate that attracts many tourists to the 24 mile long land mass, populated by 20,000 people of whom around 80% have Dutch routes.

Elly told Newsflash: “I was never very interested in saving birds particularly. I have a big heart for animals in general, and the first thing I did on Bonaire was work in an animal shelter part-time.”

She added: “I stopped working for the animal shelter because I got really frustrated about what people were doing with the animals.”

She said she was getting angrier and angrier about the situation and was not really able to do the job anymore.

But Elly returned to caring for animals in 2017 when she was approached by the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife.

She then set up the Mangrove Info Center and Bonaire Wild Bird Rehab on the Caribbean island has started to take in birds the same year.

The project started off modestly with only a single cage, but the desperate need for its services became clear when within a year she found there were taking care of around 500 flamingos.

Elly told Newsflash: “Flamingos are wild animals, and they’re not camouflaged birds, they’re bright pink. So the only thing that can really save them in nature is being really, really careful. So you cannot really approach them.”

She added: “It can be so stressful for flamingos to be near humans that they can even have a heart attack.

“Climate change is a big problem for birds because they lose their habitats. Birds need a quiet place, and these days people like to disturb them and their nests by taking pictures, so flamingos just leave their eggs and young and go somewhere else.”

She tries to care for them in a way that will allow them to be released back into the wild and the picture of her cuddling the flamingo tells a story in itself.

Elly explained: “My very first flamingo was ‘Baby’. She was born at the beginning of 2018 and was brought to me when she was approximately two weeks old. I never named her but simply called her baby when taking care of her. Even now she is still visiting the rehab on a regular base and she loves to cuddle. After her visit, she acts like a ‘normal’ flamingo and flies around the island.”

But she said that when visiting she was still like her baby and added: “She brightens up my day.”

Elly said the centre relies on donations to survive, adding: “We are doing okay, the good thing is that we only need money for food and medical supplies.”

She also uses her social media platforms and videos to promote her work and take part in fundraising activities.