The Lousiana state bird is the brown pelican. for years it was endangered and barely hanging in there. Back in the 80's south lousiana suffered a very hard freeze and the pelicans were nearly wiped out. For the first time in known history several of the big bays froze completely over and the pelicans were killed when they dived for fish traped in the ice and broke their necks. Since then conservation efforts have really paid off and now they are back strong. This is one of my favorite pictures of a pelican coming in for a sunset landing.