White pelicans nest in northwestern United States and western Canada. They migrate diagonally across the continent and winter in Florida and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Larger than their brown cousins, these white, black-winged-tipped birds have an overall length of nearly six feet and a wing spread of nine feet. In migration they make irregular stops in the Tennessee Valley of Northern Alabama. This is no recent development since Howell in his “Birds of Alabama” cites records from Leighton and Guntersville. However, the impoundment of the T.V.A. reservoirs and the establishment of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge have undoubtedly caused these big fellows to stop more often.
Author: Thomas Z. Atkeson
Volume Number: 3 Year Published: 1955
Issue Number: 1-2
Page Number: 4
Link to article: http://birdlife.aosbirds.org/1955/Vol 3 No. 1, 2_1955_p4.pdf
Link to the full issue of BirdLife: http://birdlife.aosbirds.org/1955/Vol 3 No. 1, 2_1955.pdf
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