Flamingos flock to Venice in record numbers as wetlands recover

24,000 flamingos were counted in the Venetian Lagoon in 2025 — 6,000 more than the year before — as a €23.6 million EU restoration project rebuilds salt marshes that once covered nearly half the 550-square-kilometer lagoon. In the southern lagoon alone, flamingo numbers grew from a handful to 300–400 over three years of active reconstruction.