by M. Kathy Raines

Iced confections spring to mind when I view clumps of wintering white pelicans resting and preening on a sandbank in the Laguna Madre—long carrot-colored bills slicing here and there.

Though similar looking—with their pouches, hefty size and graceful, synchronized flight —white and brown pelicans, North America’s sole species, behave quite differently. Our year-round species, the brown, stays at or near the Gulf and plunges into saltwater after fish, while the white, a winter visitor, feeds in the Laguna Madre and its environs or in resacas, rivers and ponds, dipping its bill for fish and, with its fellows, cooperatively corralling prey. Importantly, during windy cold spells, rescuers retrieve brown pelicans sucked by downdrafts onto the road, while white pelicans continue to float and feed.

In Texas, American white pelicans breed only on isolated islands in the northern Laguna Madre, though some previously nested hereabouts. Most breed in the northern Great Plains and other portions of the West northward through Canada. As many as 180 birds may migrate together. Besides in the Laguna Madre, I regularly see wintering pelicans in Brownsville resacas and in Harlingen Lake and the waters at Pendleton Park.

The pelican, generally, features prominently in folklore. Some early Christians revered the bird as a Christ figure, falsely thinking it sacrificed itself for its children by plucking at its breast till it bled, then feeding the blood to its chicks. Ancient Egyptians revered a pelican god, Henet or Henut, thought to ease one’s way into the underworld.

The American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), a massive white bird with black-edged wings that span about nine feet, weighs from fifteen to twenty pounds, while the smaller brown has a six feet wingspan and weighs about nine pounds. The white pelican’s long orange bill ends in a clawed hook, and an elastic pouch, which can hold three gallons, hangs hammock-like from its jaw. With this pouch—not a storage device as commonly thought— the pelican scoops up fish, after which it drains the water and chows down. In breeding splendor, a male’s bill and legs deepen in color, white plumes appear on its head, and a fibrous, hornlike plate grows atop its bill—presumably for protection during courtship battles–which falls off after egg-laying.

White pelicans often fish cooperatively, creating semicircles or circles, paddling and splashing to drive baffled fish to shore to be scooped up. Swimming parallel to shore, pelicans may create a line, driving prey to the shallows. Fishing in daytime, except during breeding season, one pelican eats about three pounds a day. During breeding, pelicans often fly miles from their nests to fish at night, sensing prey with their bills. A gull may land on a pelican’s head and steal its food, but, turnabout being fair play, pelicans also swipe fish from both gulls and each other. Pelicans may even snatch regurgitation produced from parents feeding their chicks.

Nesting in colonies, white pelican pairs—after various courtship bows, struts and flights— select a suitable site, digging a shallow depression with a low rim in soil, gravel or sand, sometimes lining it with a little vegetation. About a day after its completion, the female lays an egg, then, in a day or so, another. Both take turns tending eggs beneath the webs of their feet, heeding cries from embryos complaining of being cold or overheated and making suitable adjustments. Chicks—naked, orange-pouched and billed—hatch in about 30 days, crawl a bit their first week, and walk in from 20 to 24 days. Parents take turns dripping half-digested, watery food down chicks’ mouths. Older nestlings grab food by poking their heads into parents’ throats. Eventually, the young form creches or pods of from two to three pelicans, with sizes increasing into sub-colonies and then large assemblies.

Usually, only one chick, often the firstborn, survives. The larger chick torments the sibling so it leaves the nest, causing it to starve or fall prey to owls, coyotes, gulls or other predators. Or the spunkier chick kills its sibling.

White pelicans waddle and hop but fly gracefully, heads back and resting on shoulders, flapping, with slow wingbeats, then sailing, using available updrafts. In synchronized V’s or lines, they follow the rhythm of the lead bird. Usually silent, they may emit low clucks. Strong swimmers, they remain buoyant with the help of air sacs within breast tissue.

Threatened in the early 1960s, white pelicans are rebounding, but we must maintain suitable habitats for them, like the isolated islands where they like to nest. Sensing human intrusion, pelican parents may abandon both eggs and chicks. These pelicans pose no problem to anglers, as they do not generally consume game fish.