White Pelican With Breeding Colors
by D Hackett
Title
White Pelican With Breeding Colors
Artist
D Hackett
Medium
Photograph - Digital
Description
White Pelican With Breeding Colors by D Hackett
One of the largest North American birds, the American White Pelican is majestic in the air. The birds soar with incredible steadiness on broad, white-and-black wings. Their large heads and huge, heavy bills give them a prehistoric look. On the water they dip their pouched bills to scoop up fish, or tip-up like an oversized dabbling duck. Sometimes, groups of pelicans work together to herd fish into the shallows for easy feeding. Look for them on inland lakes in summer and near coastlines in winter.
American White Pelicans breed mainly on isolated islands in freshwater lakes or, in the northern Great Plains, on ephemeral islands in shallow wetlands. They forage in shallow water on inland marshes, along lake or river edges, and in wetlands, commonly 30 miles or more from their nesting islands. Where late summer temperatures bring sunning fish near the surface, these pelicans can forage on deeper lakes. During migrations, they stop in similar habitats to forage and rest. Catfish aquaculture farms in the Mississippi Delta have become increasingly popular spring migration stops for more easterly migrating flocks. In the winter, they favor coastal bays, inlets, estuaries, and sloughs where they can forage in shallow water and rest on exposed spots like sandbars. They rarely winter inland, though the Salton Sea in Southern California is a regular exception. Other inland sites may include large rivers where moving water prevents surface ice, including stretches below dams.
Uploaded
June 20th, 2015
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