“If it’s not on my bird feeder, I won’t see it” said a man to me last weekend after he asked why I was gazing up into a tree with my binoculars. I was following a vireo, and that’s a bird that’s never going to visit anyone’s bird feeder.
Another bird that won’t visit your feeder but might fly over your house is the American White Pelican. They love to ride the thermals in groups but they are sometimes so high you only see white specks (with an occasional flash of the black on the tips of their wings). It’s fun to watch them soar and circle together.
I’ve seen pelicans flying over the city, while out in the country and of course at wildlife areas like Horicon Marsh in central Wisconsin. I never get tired of watching them.
Pelicans sometimes work as a group to herd fish, and they spend a lot of time sunning and preening.
And here’s a fun fact from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website: American White Pelican embryos squawk before hatching to express discomfort if conditions get too hot or cold. So in other words, squeaking eggs!