Florida Birds - Part 7 - Pelicans!

Gotta say, one of my favorite birds has to be the Brown Pelican.

These incredible birds look like they're left over from another age, and their bulky bodies make it look like they shouldn't be able to fly, but they do, and are incredibly agile in the air.

How do they manage with that giant bill?

I watched this one preen, taking oil from its uropygial gland at the top of its tail (seen below), and spreading it over each feather to add waterproofing.

This adult skims a few inches over the surface of the water. They barely need to flap their wings, but glide along seemingly without effort.

Apparently pelicans have good eyesight, which they use to scan for fish in the water below. They flew very close while I was on a beach and it felt like they were checking out everything, including me.

Here, a squadron comes my way. Intimidating!

Watching the pelicans go fishing at sunset was one of my favorite experiences. They would fly along the shore about twenty feet in the air, then suddenly twist and plunge into the water.

Gulp!

This is a Pterodactyl, right?

This research paper published in The Journal of Field Ornithology goes into the details of the method of the pelican dive, and explains how the birds must learn this essential skill.

At a distance, these pelicans look mostly drab, but up close, you can see they are quite colorful. I love the adult plumage with feathers that are contracting shades of gray, along with white head and neck feathers.

Immature birds are more all-over brown, like this one below.

Adult:

These photos don't convey the size of the pelican's wingspan, which is about seven feet. Despite being a huge bird, the Brown Pelican is the smallest of all pelican species.

Here's a nice video that shows pelicans in action, elegantly flying and diving.

 

Brown Pelicans are extremely rare in the NYC area, but have been seen from time to time, as recently as 2022, so there is the possibility of seeing one in our area.

Florida Birds - Part 6

If you're a Tern fan, you can find them all over the gulf coast of Florida this time of year. Royal, Sandwich, Forster's, Common, Caspian, and others all hang out together alongside gulls and shorebirds. The Royal terns are easiest to spot in a crowd as they have those giant bright orange bills (see below). The others can easily be identified as compared to the Royals.

The beaches are used my many types of birds, including Snowy Egrets. This one tried its luck foraging in the shallow waves just before sunset.

On another beach, a Little Blue Heron hunted for breakfast at sunrise.

The heron was joined by several Ruddy Turnstones.

I like that these birds don't lose all of their coloring during the non-breeding season, so they are easy to identify in a mixed flock of shorebirds.

Most wintertime shorebirds look more like this (below). Cornell University offers an online self-study Shorebird Identification course, which I recommend taking.

There is no mistaking the Roseate Spoonbill for anything else! I posted some photos of this bird previously, but it deserves more.

Just look at it!

A Spoonbill flying at sunrise:

Another one later in the morning:

Early one morning, we found a couple of Sandhill Cranes foraging in a wetland area.

They were joined by several Gray-Headed Swamphens. This was my first time seeing both species in the wild, so they made my day.

I previously posted a photo of Sandhill Cranes flying, but they're so awesome, here is another one.

This is a Glossy Ibis in flight.

And a Wood Stork in flight:

Double-Crested Cormorant - we have these year-round in NYC.

Bald Eagles can also be found year-round all along the East Coast, but we don't see them as often in the NYC area. When we do, it's usually a big deal.

Next up:  Pelicans!

Florida Birds - Part 5

Continuing with the Florida bird series, here are a few interesting prey captures.

This Laughing Gull surprised us by grabbing a dragonfly (possibly a Giant Darner) right out of the air and eating it.

Another gull found a large shrimp and briefly paused to show it off before being chased around by a bunch of other gulls. A prize like this is worth stealing!

A Black-Bellied Plover pulled up some kind of giant worm. This, too, turned out to be a catch that caused many other birds to try and steal.

One of my favorite bird interactions was this Little Blue Heron catching a fish.

In order to eat the fish, the heron has to spend a bit of time breaking it up. As it does this, note the legs of a gull creeping in on the upper right of the photo below.

As the heron was distracted, the gull made its move.

The heron saw the gull moving in on its lunch and took evasive action.

The heron kept maneuvering to keep its back to the gull as it continued to crush the fish so it could eventually swallow it. 

Meanwhile, a couple of Willets had some kind of disagreement on the beach. The one on the right did not like having the one on the left around and kept hassling it. Their conversation sounded pretty heated.

A more relaxed Willet kicking up some sea foam:

Peeps coexisting peacefully on the beach:

Another Black-Bellied Plover:

Winter time is a challenge for identifying shorebirds as their plumage is mostly drab and some species can look alike. I appreciate the challenge of identifying them this time of year, but I do look forward to summer when all of these birds can be found in their more colorful breeding plumage in the NYC area, in places like Jamaica Bay.