{"id":17236,"date":"2026-06-03T10:58:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=17236"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:58:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:58:50","slug":"american-white-pelican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/american-white-pelican\/","title":{"rendered":"American White Pelican"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Howdy, BugFans,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026: <\/strong>The BugLady spent the morning watching pelicans; photographing pelicans on the water, on the beach, and, in small squadrons, in the air; and editing pictures of pelicans.  They\u2019re having a moment in her neighborhood at the edge of Lake Michigan.  There are two floating about far offshore right now \u2013 brilliant in the sunlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an article she wrote about them two years ago for the newsletter of the Lake Michigan Bird Observatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024<\/strong>: Just before 3:00 PM on October 6, the last new species of the Big Sit!<\/em> was spotted from the tower \u2013 two White Pelicans that were working their way north along the shoreline. A single bird flew south over the tower the next day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wait! – pelicans live where the land touches the oceans, right? Well, yes. And \u2013 no. Brown Pelicans are certainly creatures of salt water, and when one shows up in Wisconsin, it\u2019s a big deal, but American White Pelicans are native not only to the coasts but also to the Upper Midwest and to the prairie potholes of the northern Great Plains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"American
American White Pelican<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve been present in Wisconsin for a long time, though it\u2019s not known whether the birds reported by Indigenous tribes and early European settlers were breeding or migrating. They made a big target for the early settlers, despite the fact that, as one said \u201cthey have an oily flavor, whether alive or dead, which is so disagreeable that it is impossible to eat them<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Wisconsin\u2019s first modern breeding records occurred in 1995 (Green Bay) and 1997 (Horicon Marsh), and the newcomers probably hailed from North Dakota. For an interesting history of White Pelicans in Wisconsin, see\u00a0this<\/a>.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a map of their present range<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American White Pelican\u2019s scientific name, Pelecanus erythrorhynchos<\/em>, means \u201cred-billed pelican.  The German naturalist who named it based his description on the writings of an English ornithologist who called it the Rough-billed Pelican. John James Audubon, waxing poetic, added \u201cAmerican<\/em>\u201d to its name, saying, \u201cIn consequence of this discovery, I have honored it with the name of my beloved country, over the mighty streams of which may this splendid bird wander free and unmolested to the most distant times, as it has already done in the misty ages of unknown antiquity.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"American
American White Pelican<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

White Pelicans typically feed on minnows, shiners, carp, and suckers, but they\u2019ll eat game fish, tadpoles, crayfish, and salamanders, and sometimes they adopt commercial catfish ponds. Unlike Brown Pelicans, they don\u2019t plummet into the water from the sky; they hunt while swimming on the surface.  White Pelicans often forage alone, but a group may cooperate to encircle a school of small fish, drive it toward shore, and then share the results.  They sometimes steal food from other birds, even from the beaks of other pelicans that are feeding their young. During the breeding season, they often feed at night, locating fish by touch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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American White Pelican<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A bird this size has few predators, but foxes and coyotes do damage in breeding colonies, and ravens, gulls, Great Horned Owls, Red-tailed Hawks, and eagles prey on eggs and nestlings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a courtship that includes strutting, bowing, head swaying, circling in the air, and jabbing at potential nest spots, pelican pairs settle down in communal nest areas, often on islands for protection. They lay two or three eggs but usually fledge only one young. Competition is stiff \u2013 it takes about 150 pounds of food to launch a young bird \u2013 and the first chick to hatch may eventually eliminate its nest mates (siblicide). Chicks can crawl by two weeks, walk by the end of three weeks, and fly by 10 weeks. When they\u2019re about three weeks of age, chicks leave their nests and gather with other chicks in a group called a \u201ccr\u00e8che,\u201d but they return to the area of their old nest to be fed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FUN FACTS ABOUT WHITE PELICANS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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American White Pelican<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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