Wildlife

Over thirty species of birds use Pelican Island as a rookery, roost, feeding ground, or loafing area. Sixteen different species of birds nest on Pelican Island, which include the:

• Brown pelican
• Wood stork
• Great egret
• Snowy egret
• Reddish egret
• Cattle egret
• Great blue heron
• Little blue heron
• Tricolored heron
• Green-backed heron
• Black-crowned night heron
• Double-crested cormorant (resident)
• Anhinga
• White ibis
• American oystercatcher
• Common moorhen

Species that nest elsewhere in the refuge or nearby include:

• Least tern
• Royal tern
• Black skimmer
• Osprey

Summer visitors include:

• Roseate spoonbill
• Magnificent frigatebird

Wintering birds include:

• White pelican
• Double-crested cormorant (migratory)
• Blue-wing teal
• Lesser scaup
• Red-breasted merganser
• Ring-billed gull
• Laughing gull
• Forster's tern
• Common loon

Endangered species include:

• Wood storks
• Florida manatee
• Green sea turtle
• Hawksbill sea turtle
• Kemp's ridley sea turtle

Threatened species include:

• Loggerhead sea turtle
• Eastern indigo snake
• Bald eagle
• Piping plover