American White Pelican

About the American White Pelican

One of the largest birds in North America, with a nine-foot wingspan and a flock habit of soaring in slow, synchronized spirals that flash white then vanish as the birds turn. Unlike Brown Pelicans they never dive - White Pelicans feed swimming, often in coordinated lines that herd fish into the shallows where every bird scoops at once. Breeding adults grow a strange fibrous plate on the upper bill that is shed after egg-laying. They winter across Texas on reservoirs and coastal bays, where long white rafts of them are a familiar cool-season sight.