Wading Birds of Pelican Island

At least 16 bird species have nested on Pelican Island, the mangrove island in the Indian River Lagoon off Sebastian, and the wading birds among them include the great egret, roseate spoonbill, wood stork, herons and other egrets.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists brown pelican, great egret, roseate spoonbill and wood stork among the at least 16 species documented nesting on Pelican Island proper (USFWS). The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail puts it as 15 species nesting alongside the brown pelican rookery, naming wood stork, anhinga, American oystercatcher and many herons and egrets, and adds that at least 15 other bird species use the island to feed and rest (Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail). Across the whole refuge, a June 2026 Service feature counts more than 130 bird species and singles out tricolored herons and wood storks feeding along the marsh edges (USFWS, June 2026).

Wood storks at Pelican Island are federally threatened, and the reddish egret, tricolored heron and roseate spoonbill are state-designated threatened species, all also covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The refuge's own description names the federally protected wood stork and the state threatened reddish egret and tricolored heron among the species of the brackish Indian River Lagoon around Pelican Island (USFWS). FWC records that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the wood stork from endangered to threatened on June 30, 2014, and describes it as the only stork that breeds in the United States, nesting in colonies of 100 to 500 nests in trees standing in water (FWC wood stork profile).

The reddish egret is the rarest egret in North America, according to FWC, and hunts by running and weaving with wings spread so that it appears to dance. In mainland Florida it nests from February to June on platforms of sticks on mangrove keys and dredge spoil islands, and the Service notes that many spoil and mangrove islands fall within the Pelican Island refuge boundaries (USFWS). The tricolored heron, with its slate-blue head and upper body, breeds in colonies between February and August in trees or shrubs on salt marsh islands (FWC). The roseate spoonbill is the only spoonbill native to the Western Hemisphere; FWC says it prefers mangrove islands for nesting and lists Brevard County, just north of Sebastian, with Florida Bay and Tampa Bay as the places it is found in Florida (FWC).

Wading birds nest on Pelican Island in spring, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls fall through spring the best time to see birds at the refuge off Sebastian.

The Service's seasonal guide says spring is when at least 16 species nest on Pelican Island proper, that summer is the least active season for wildlife, and that winter brings American white pelicans and ducks such as red-breasted mergansers, blue-winged teal and northern shovelers (USFWS). Its activities page rates birding as year-round, with fall through spring best for migratory birds, and notes that volunteers give free tram tours of the refuge trails and platforms from November through March (USFWS).

October falls at the start of the fall through spring window the Service recommends for Pelican Island. FWC says Florida wood storks can lay eggs from October to June (FWC), while reddish egrets and tricolored herons start nesting in February, so late winter and spring visits coincide with the nesting windows FWC gives for the waders of the Pelican Island colony.

The best land view of the Pelican Island rookery is from the 18-foot observation tower at the end of the Centennial Trail, off the Historic Jungle Trail 3.3 miles south of Sebastian Inlet.

The tower stands at the end of the three-quarter-mile, wheelchair-accessible Centennial Trail and carries two mounted spotting scopes aimed at the rookery; the trailhead is the Pelican Island viewing area parking lot at 11455 Jungle Trail, Vero Beach (USFWS trails). The trail ends in a 500-foot boardwalk with a view of Pelican Island proper in the middle of the Indian River Lagoon (USFWS). For feeding birds rather than nesting ones, the Joe Michael Memorial Trail loop passes a seasonally managed impoundment that the Service calls a favorite feeding spot for the roseate spoonbill, reddish egret and herons, with a salt-marsh observation deck about a mile in (USFWS trails).

The island itself is off limits. The birding trail guide says it can be viewed from a boat, kept outside the closed area, or from a distance on land (Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail). Boaters launch in Sebastian, at the Wabasso Causeway or at Sebastian Inlet State Park, and on refuge land pets and drones are not allowed and feeding, capturing or harassing wildlife is prohibited (USFWS).

Hours depend on which page is read. The Service's visitor page gives the public use areas as open daily from 7:30 a.m. until sunset but shows sunrise to sunset in its hours box (USFWS visitor page), and Indian River County lists 7:30 a.m. to sunset year-round (Indian River County). For an early look at the Pelican Island rookery, 7:30 a.m. is the time two of the three listings agree on.

Pelican Island was protected in 1903 because plume hunters were killing its pelicans, egrets and ibis for hat feathers, and erosion had cut the island to less than half its 1903 area by 2000.

Indian River County's refuge page tells how Paul Kroegel, who arrived in 1881, watched a small island with an unusually large population of pelicans, egrets, ibis and other large waterfowl that traders hunted for plumage used in hat making (Indian River County). On March 14, 1903, with the encouragement of Frank Chapman and the Florida Audubon Society, President Theodore Roosevelt established Pelican Island as the first federal bird reservation, and Audubon hired Kroegel as its first warden (USFWS).

The colony's footing is shrinking. The Service records that the island covered 5.5 acres in 1903, began eroding around 1943 and was less than half its original size by 2000. A 2001 project installed a 165-foot oyster shell wave break, with the shell airlifted by helicopter to limit disturbance to nesting birds, and planted smooth cordgrass and mangroves to trap sediment (USFWS). Later work placed loose shell and shell bags along the shore, and current management monitors measurable changes to Pelican Island proper (USFWS).

Published sizes for the island differ: 5.5 acres in 1903 on the Service's history, a 5-acre island in the Indian River County account, and 4.2 acres in the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail listing (Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail). The Service's wilderness note on the same history page now puts Pelican Island proper at roughly 3 acres, after years of boat-induced wave action and sea-level rise, so even the 4.2-acre figure is out of date (USFWS).