Watch for the enormous Brown Pelicans gracefully gliding along the roadside canals and beaches. Brown Pelicans, the official state bird of Louisiana, represent an historic avian success story. If you are traveling along the Creole Nature Trail in winter you may see White Pelicans. Larger than Brown's and with black wingtips, these birds spend the winter here having come all the way south from their nesting grounds in the Dakotas and Prairie Provinces of Canada. Whereas Brown Pelicans feed by diving hard into the water from great heights, White Pelicans feed cooperatively in small groups by herding fish. Pelicans look ungainly and awkward standing on land, stately while cruising in a fleet on the water, and graceful and majestic when soaring against the blue Louisiana skies. Pelicans are best known for their bucket-like bill used to scoop fish out of the water. In a single scoop a pelican can capture up to three gallons of fish and water - two to three times what its stomach can hold!