What the flockis telling you.

If you went to bed with a normal lawn and woke up with a few dozen plastic flamingos on it, congratulations: you have been flocked. Flamingo flocking is a long-running fundraising tradition for schools, sports teams, scout troops, and charities.

The usual setup: someone pays the group to plant a flock in your yard. There is typically a sign explaining the cause, and you donate to have the birds removed and sent on to the next lucky lawn. Many campaigns also sell “flock insurance” so you can opt out in advance. The details vary by group, so read the sign.

It is a friendly prank with a good cause attached. The correct response is to laugh, take a photo, make a donation, and quietly start planning who gets flocked next.

Flamingos are a classic milestone prank: a flock for a big birthday, a pink army for a retirement party, a pair by the door for an anniversary. If the birds come with balloons, a yard sign, or a big number, this is the one.

Planning one yourself? A bulk flock pack is cheaper per bird than buying classics one by one, and you can reuse the flock for the next victim.

The flamingo has been Florida’s unofficial mascot for about a century, thanks to decades of postcards, motels, and racetrack flocks (here is the full history). A flamingo in a Michigan yard often means the owners winter in Florida, wish they did, or used to live there.

In snowbird communities, the flamingos coming out is practically a seasonal announcement: the owners are back. In Florida itself, it is just the local dialect.

Plenty of serious gardeners keep a flamingo or two among the plants, partly as a joke about the whole idea of a tasteful garden, and partly because a pink bird looks great against green foliage. Flamingos with a job (a bird bath, a planter, a rain gauge) are the gardener’s tell.

Yes, we know. Every so often a post goes around claiming that pink flamingos in a yard, like an upside-down pineapple on the porch, are a secret signal that the homeowners are, shall we say, unusually open-minded about the neighbors.

Here is the honest answer: there is no good evidence that flamingos are any kind of widespread code. Millions of plastic flamingos have been sold since 1957; they are in yards belonging to grandmothers, schoolteachers, and churchgoing retirees, and the overwhelming majority mean exactly nothing beyond “I like flamingos.” If you have a flamingo and the rumor worries you, the solution is not to give up the flamingo. Just keep the pineapple right side up.

And if anybody asks what yours means, the correct answer is “Florida.”

If you are putting out birds of your own, decide what you want them to say. A classic pair by the mailbox says tradition. A big flock says party. A bird bath or rain gauge says gardener with jokes. A chime on the lanai says Florida, but make it quiet.

Whatever you go with, plant them so they stay upright (here is how), and if anyone calls them tacky, we have a whole piece on that. Browse the full Yard & Garden hub for more birds.