Plastic flamingo named city's official bird

At a busy Madison Common Council meeting on Tuesday night, council members voted to make the plastic pink flamingo the official city bird.

The new mascot was debated for five minutes, and then the Common Council voted 15-4 to make the plastic pink flamingo the official city bird.

The idea was sparked by a 1979 prank when pranksters on campus put out 1,008 of the birds.



"It sure lives in Madison lore as a really fun thing," said Wisconsin State Journal writer Doug Moe. Moe proposed the idea in a column, and Alder Marsha Rummel brought it to the council.

Not everyone embraced the idea of voting on the plastic flamingo. "I respectfully ask for this City Council to devote more time to more serious business at hand," said Alder Thuy Pham-Remmele, of District 20.

But Rummel defended bringing the proposal to the council. "We are capable of multitasking in life, and if you don't have a little fun, it's not worth living, and I spent like 20 minutes on this since April," Rummel said.