The pelican

• The state flag features a mother pelican on a blue background tearing at her own breast to nurse her hungry baby birds with her blood.
  
  

Drops of blood

• After a 2006 amendment, prompted by an eighth-grade student, the flag was altered to include the original image of three drops of blood, which had traditionally appeared on the flag in the 19th century.
  
  

State Motto

• Louisiana's state motto, "Union, Justice & Confidence," appears at the bottom of the flag.
  
  

Past Flags

• Before the Civil War, Louisiana's state flag featured 13 red, white and blue stripes and a single yellow star on a red background.
  
  

History

• The current flag's design was decreed in In 1902 by Governor William Wright Heard.