They have become a familiar sight around lakes and waterbodies across the Prairies, especially in Manitoba, known for their large wingspan, graceful gliding and distinctive bill and pouch. For several months of the year, the American white pelican makes its home in Manitoba and across the Prairies, laying eggs and living by the water, and their population has been growing. “American pelicans are increasing continentally, at a rate of about four per cent per year,” said LeeAnn Latremouille with Birds Canada. “There are some parts in the U.S. where the range is actually contracting a little bit, but they are increasing in numbers.” Pelicans, Latremouille notes, are often found in the Prairie provinces but have expanded their range to the Great Lakes in recent years. The birds breed in large colonies, and Latremouille said they are known to travel upwards of 100 kilometres away from their nesting colonies, which makes them visible to people. In Manitoba, several areas are common spots for pelicans. The Pelican Islands Ecological Reserve on Lake Winnipeg has been created to protect breeding grounds for the bird, along with other protected islands on Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipegosis. The birds are also often found around Lockport. Jacques Bourgeois, marketing and communications manager with Oak Hammock Marsh, said pelicans have also been spotted in the marsh, typically ones that haven’t found a mate during the breeding season. “They’re fish eaters, so they go where the food source is and of course, Lockport provides an abundance of food there,” he said. “Oak Hammock Marsh is also pretty good because lots of smaller fish will breed in the marsh—it’s actually a nursery for small fish—but anywhere along bodies of water deep enough to have fish, you will find pelicans.” The Prairie landscape makes an ideal spot for the pelican population to grow. “All of those small wetland depressions, and even some of the bigger lakes that occur throughout the region, were caused by the recession of the last Ice Age,” Latremouille said. “All those glaciers don’t retreat back in a nice, orderly fashion, and big chunks of ice get left, and they eventually fill in.” Multiple viewers have submitted photos of the birds to CTV Winnipeg’s weather inbox this summer. Latremouille believes the amount of water the province has received from storms and flooding has made them more visible. “I have a suspicion that it’s because a lot of their foraging habitat would be flooded out this year, especially in Manitoba,” she said. “They like to forage along lakes and especially rivers in sandbars, and I spent a little bit of time in Manitoba about a month and a half ago, and there is not a whole lot of river sandbars exposed this year.” The pelican population was threatened in the 1970s from human interaction, including hunting, habitat damage and the effects of DDT. Efforts have been made to protect the bird, including banning DDT in Canada and listing the bird as a protected wildlife species in Manitoba. “One of the things that makes them vulnerable is the fact that they’re colonial birds,” Bourgeois said. “They all nest together in the same islands. So, if there’s something that happens to that island, well, then we wipe out the whole brood that season. So that makes them a bit vulnerable in that respect.” For Latremouille and Bourgeois, the thing they enjoy the most about seeing pelicans is seeing them fly. “It doesn’t look like they should be able to fly,” said Latremouille. “They’re huge. Their body is massive. Their bill is massive, and the fact that they can get up in the air and get airborne is just mind-blowing to me.” “They’re such a huge bird, like the largest bird we have in the country, and when they’re flying, it’s almost like a nice little gentle glide of a squadron just flying overhead,” said Bourgeois. “They’re pretty amazing to watch.” Pelicans typically arrive in Manitoba in May and fully migrate south by the end of October or when the weather gets colder. Pelican facts
