American White Pelican
Florida’s impressive winter resident
The American white pelican ( Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) is a migrant and winter resident of the Florida mainland from October to April. It breeds in the interior northwest of North America and western Canada, then migrates and winters in southern California to southern Mexico and along the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. It is occasionally observed in northern Florida coastal areas and freshwater lakes but most often in central and south Florida in large numbers on the lakes of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, St. Johns River, Lake Okeechobee and Florida Bay.
It can also be observed in many locations near Fort Myers, including Bunche Beach, Sanibel and Captiva islands and some inland waters. Huge migrating and wintering flocks can often be seen circling high overhead. In flight the white pelican has a conspicuous large yellow bill and its short legs are hard to see, differentiating it from the wood stork, which is smaller, with a dark bill and extended legs.
The adult white pelican is predominantly white except for the black primaries and outer secondaries. Its bare facial skin, bill, gular pouch, legs and feet are orange-yellow. In a breeding bird, the bare facial skin, bill and gular pouch brighten to an orangepink, while the legs and feet become orange. An early-season breeding bird sports light yellow plumes on the center of its breast and crest of its head. A two-inch fibrous knob also develops two-thirds down the upper mandible (culmen). Sexes are the same. Juveniles look like adults but are distinguished by upper wing coverts, and the head and neck are marked with dusky gray.
The white pelican is one of North America’s largest birds. It has a wing spread of 10 feet and is 4 to 6 feet long. Its size makes it one of Florida’s most spectacular winter visitors.
This pelican’s Florida habitat includes bays, estuaries, freshwater ponds, lakes, marshes and flooded agricultural fields. The inland freshwater habitat is important as the varying water depths provide a variety and abundance of aquatic food along with sheltered resting and roosting areas.
In the breeding areas of northwestern North America and western Canada it uses islands in bays and rivers free of mammalian predation. This is crucial because the white pelican builds its nest directly on the ground by scraping and clearing an area and rimming it with debris, dirt, wood bits, stems and sticks. These ground nests are vulnerable to mammalian predation. This is not the case with the brown pelican
( P. occidentalis), which nests in mangroves and other trees in Florida, much safer locations.
The white pelican produces only one brood per year. The female lays two eggs that are incubated by both sexes for 26 to 36 days. The young are brooded for 15 to 18 days and fledge in 60 or more days. The young are altricial, meaning they are immobile, downless, have closed eyes and have to be fed, making these ground nests even more vulnerable to predation. Usually only one chick survives as the second chick starves to death as a result of harassment by its older sibling.
White pelicans, along with egrets and herons, suffered population declines during the height of the plume trade in the late 1800s. White and brown pelicans also experienced declines in the 1960s and 1970s caused by reproductive failure from eggshell thinning and deaths resulting from direct exposure to pesticides. Their populations have increased since the 1960s and are now stable. It is estimated that 50,000 pairs currently nest in Canada and 20,000 pairs in North America. Although both species of pelicans have recovered from chemical contamination, they are still vulnerable to serious injury and death from entanglement in monofilament line.
The white pelican is unlike its brown cousin in that it is buoyant and not able to dive. It feeds by floating on the water’s surface as part of a group, herding fish in front and submerging its head to scoop the fish. It does not plunge-dive for fish like the brown pelican. It consumes about three pounds of fish per day. It feeds its young regurgitant fish at first and whole fish later.
Rachael Carson’s book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, documented the adverse environmental effects caused by pesticides such as DDT. Her book prompted an environmental movement to reduce the use of dangerous pesticides that circumvented the decline and helped the recovery of pelicans and other wildlife. William R. Cox has been a professional nature photographer and ecologist for more than 35 years. Visit him online at williamrcoxphotography.com.
Although pelicans have recovered from chemical contamination, they are still vulnerable to serious injury and death from entanglement in monofilament line.