Wading Birds of Pelican Island — Sebastian, Florida

Pelican Island is named for its brown pelicans, but it is a mixed colony. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states that at least 16 species of birds have been documented nesting on Pelican Island proper, the small mangrove island in the Indian River Lagoon off Sebastian, including the brown pelican, great egret, roseate spoonbill and wood stork. The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail adds that besides the brown pelican rookery, 15 additional species nest on the island, including wood stork, anhinga, American oystercatcher and many herons and egrets, and that at least 15 other bird species use Pelican Island to feed and rest.

The long-legged waders in that colony include birds with special legal status. According to the refuge, the waters around Pelican Island support the federally protected wood stork as well as the state protected reddish egret and tricolored heron. The wider refuge, about 5,400 acres of mangroves, salt marsh and open lagoon, provides feeding, nesting and roosting habitat for more than 130 bird species, according to a June 2026 USFWS story that describes wading birds such as tricolored herons and wood storks feeding along its marsh edges.

The wood stork is the one wading bird at Pelican Island with federal listing. The FWC wood stork profile gives its status as federally threatened and notes that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified it from endangered to threatened on June 30, 2014. It is the only species of stork that breeds in the United States, a large bird 35 to 45 inches long with a wingspan of 60 to 65 inches and a bare, gray, scaly head. Its nesting at Pelican Island, on the Indian River Lagoon, places the colony off Sebastian among the places where the species breeds in Florida.

The species' habits fit a mangrove island. The FWC states that wood storks nest in large colonies of 100 to 500 nests, that colonies in Central and North Florida form from February to March, and that nests are built primarily in trees standing in water, a description that matches the mangroves of Pelican Island proper. Females lay a single clutch of two to five eggs, incubation averages 30 days, and the young can fly 10 to 12 weeks after hatching. Wood storks feed by moving a partly open bill through shallow water and snapping it shut on contact, so the shallow marshes and impoundments around the Indian River Lagoon matter as much as the nesting island itself.

Three of the colony's wading birds are listed as threatened by Florida. The FWC reddish egret profile calls it the rarest egret species found in North America, with a dark morph that has a reddish head and neck and a distinctive dancing hunting style; in mainland Florida it nests from February to June on mangrove keys and dredge spoil islands. The tricolored heron, named for its slate-blue, purple and white plumage, breeds in colonies from February to August with nests in trees or shrubs on salt marsh islands. Both species are named by the refuge as state protected birds of the Indian River Lagoon around Pelican Island.

The roseate spoonbill and great egret are on the USFWS list of Pelican Island nesters. The FWC spoonbill profile describes it as state threatened, nesting in mixed colonies with other wading birds in mangroves, and feeding by sweeping its spoon-shaped bill back and forth in shallow water. Spoonbills also feed on the refuge mainland: USFWS notes that the managed impoundment along the Joe Michael Memorial Trail is a favorite feeding spot for roseate spoonbills, reddish egrets and herons, on the same refuge as the Pelican Island nesting colony.

Spring is nesting season. The USFWS species page describes spring at the refuge as the time when animals are migrating, mating and more active, and places the 16 nesting species on Pelican Island proper in that season. During spring and fall migration, birds rest and refuel at the refuge as they follow the Indian River Lagoon south to the Everglades or the Caribbean, according to USFWS. The FWC profiles give overlapping windows: wood stork colonies in Central Florida form in February and March, reddish egrets on the mainland nest February to June, and tricolored herons breed February to August.

Feeding continues year round on the refuge mainland. On the trails page, USFWS explains that water levels in the Joe Michael Memorial Trail impoundment are managed seasonally, and that the salt marsh observation deck about a mile into the three-mile loop is frequented by shore birds, wading birds, waterfowl and raptors. The refuge home page describes fall through spring as the best time of year to see the famous residents of Pelican Island, including migratory white pelicans and nesting brown pelicans.

The wading birds were the original target. Indian River County records that Paul Kroegel, who moved to the area in 1881, watched a small 5-acre island with an unusually large population of pelicans, egrets, ibis and other large waterbirds, and that the island was a major hunting area for traders selling plumage for hat making. USFWS states that by the late 1800s plume hunters slaughtered countless waterbirds for the fashion trade, and that President Theodore Roosevelt's executive order in 1903 established Pelican Island as the first national wildlife refuge. Congress designated the island as wilderness in 1970, and in 1993 the Ramsar Convention recognized the Pelican Island refuge as a Wetland of International Importance for its support of endangered species and large assemblages of migratory birds.

The colony has less land than it once did, though sources give different figures. The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail describes a 4.2-acre Pelican Island. The refuge's wilderness description states that Pelican Island proper covered 5.5 acres in 1970 and is now roughly 3 acres due to years of boat-induced wave action and sea-level rise, which makes the Pelican Island Wilderness the smallest unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System.

The Service has tried to hold the shoreline. According to the refuge's management page, past shoreline stabilization on Pelican Island proper included placing loose shell and shell bags and planting spartina and mangroves along the shore, and current management includes monitoring measurable changes to the island. Because wood storks, egrets and spoonbills build their nests in the island's trees, the mangrove edge is the nesting habitat itself, not just a buffer around it.

The island is closed to landing. The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail states that Pelican Island itself is off limits to visitors and is viewable from a boat kept outside the closed area, or from a distance on land. On the refuge mainland along the Jungle Trail, the easy three-quarter-mile Centennial Trail ends at a 500-foot accessible observation tower and boardwalk with a view of Pelican Island proper, and the Joe Michael Memorial Trail and Bird's Impoundment Trail circle managed marsh where wading birds feed.