As Florida’s seasonal residents make their way south by car or plane each year, a two-legged species joins the annual migration towards warmer days and brighter sunshine. If you’re out on the water during the winter, you shouldn’t have much trouble spotting them. In addition to being white as snow, they are among the largest birds in North America. 

Pelecanus erythrohynchos, or the American White Pelican, escapes the frigid temperatures of places like Alberta and Montana to spend time soaking up the rays and fishing in waterways all across the state of Florida. An adult bird may have a wingspan up to 10 feet across and weigh close to 30 pounds. Bright, white plumage, fringed with black along the wingtips, distinguish this huge water fowl from its local cousin, the Brown Pelican. The two species also differ in another important way: their styles of fishing.

Instead of dive-bombing its prey like the Brown Pelican, the White Pelican, also known as the Rough-billed Pelican because of the horn it grows during mating season, dunks its head in the water and swims after fish with an open bill. Its net-like throat sac can hold up to three gallons of fish and water. White Pelicans sometimes band together when they fish in groups known alternately as briefs, pods, pouches, scoops, or squadrons. Fishing the shallow waters in this fashion may net each bird up to four pounds of food a day.

Huge flocks of White Pelicans can be observed along exposed sandbars near coastal barrier islands as the birds congregate to socialize. Their croak-croak-croak chatter sounds like a cross between a duck and a frog. You may also spot them soaring high in the sky on thermal breezes.

As winter fades into spring, the pelicans take flight once more to return home to northern breeding grounds in California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, or Montana. Some continue to Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, or Ontario in Canada. Courtship lasts for a month as they pair off and build ground-level nests out of sticks, mud, and debris on freshwater islands. Males and females share incubation duties for about a month over two to six eggs. The hatchlings are raised in the nest for another month before they leave their parents to join other young birds in a juvenile pod. The parents use the free time to fish and bring their catch back to their offspring for another few months. Young White Pelicans learn to fly at two-months of age, allowing them just enough time to strengthen their wings before the snow birds head south again.