American White Pelican
Welcome to this week’s Wildlife of the Week!
Our species
this week is the American White Pelican!
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
Our Wildlife of the Week is the American White Pelican. This is a huge waterbird with an overall length up to 70 inches, courtesy of the huge beak which measures up to 15 inches in males. It has a wingspan up to ten feet; the second-largest wingspan of any North American bird, after the California condor. Body weight can range between 8 and 30 pounds. Their broad wings, long neck, and massive bill gives them a unique, long shape that makes them hard to confuse with any other bird.
Adult American White Pelicans are snowy white with black flight feathers visible only when the wings are spread. The bill and legs are yellow-orange. During the breeding season, adults grow an unusual projection or horn on the upper mandible near the tip of the bill.
Fun fact: a flock of pelicans is called squadron.
They do not plunge-dive the way Brown Pelicans do. White Pelicans feed from the water’s surface, dipping their beaks into the water to catch fish and other aquatic organisms. They often upend, like a very large dabbling duck, in this process. They like to come together in groups of a dozen or more birds to feed, as they can thus cooperate and corral fish to one another. A floating group of pelicans (called a squadron) will feed in unison, dipping their heads in synchronized fashion, a captivating water ballet. Each bird eats more than four pounds of food a day and they will take fish up to three pounds or more. Crawfish and amphibians are also potential prey.
They nest in colonies in the upper Midwest and Western states and into Canada. They are seen at Wheeler as they pass through the refuge on winter migration and they stop further south along the Gulf Coast, Florida and into Costa Rica. Smaller numbers will overwinter on the refuge and the best places to spot them are on Limestone Bay, The Tennessee River and Flint Creek near Hickory Hills. The pelicans in the photo were spotted at Osprey Landing and in Flint Creek near Hickory Hills. (Photos by Tom Ress)
