The Pelecaniformes order finds its most visually recognizable and beak distinctive representative emblem in the pelican bird. The pelican is known as the beach scavenger, the vulture of the beach and sandscapes. In the case of the pelican, the beak makes the bird. Lakes and marshes with pelican life are familiar seascapes in art, and the pelican has served as a cultural symbol of various educational ideas and concepts.

The prominent and distinctive beak, lengthened pouch, wry expression, and foraging habits characterize this bird. This particular bill comes in handy for nest building. Brown Pelicans breed from Anacapa Island, California south to Chile and from Maryland to Venezuela and Trinidad. Pelicans can be found at the Amazon River, Peru, and on the American East Coast.

 

Pelicans are sizable, weighing a half to a dozen pounds. Life span is thirty years thereabouts, without variation to extreme weather or ecological interruption of viable resources. The Brown Pelicans (all 4 subspecies) and the American White Pelican are protected species.

 

Wingspan varies slightly with subspecies and can extend as much as eight feet. Pelicans do perch and convey interest with extended mating behavior that nervously develops into nesting and hatchings. Nesting structure is not concrete, pelicans opportunistically make nests according to instinct. The American white pelican has tipped wing markings and an orangeish bill.

 

Pelicans like to breed undisturbed, and they can be easily aggravated when humans interact with their nesting opportunities. Food availability runs low when marine life is denuded of viable plenitude by pollution and overfishing. Pollutants and chemicals can weaken egg shells, which usually appear in a clutch of one or two ovals in nests during March through May. Pelicans migrate during winter months to avoid colder climates and freezing on coastal water based habitat locations.

 

The American White Pelican, which feeds while swimming, must find warmer water. This species must explore warmer waters like Mexico and California coasts to live. The integration of weather extremes affects every level of ecosystem.  The American White must also worry about excess water and rising levels of surface water to ground from flooding. Droughts can strand migrationally observant pelicans in unfriendly habitats.

 

Pelicans inhabit coastal waterways, tidewater beaches and sandy marsh sea shores. The very long beak of the pelican allows for deep water fishing, scooping, and trapping of marine life. Special features of the pelican bill allow for fish, smaller birds, anchovies, sardines, and crustacean processing for sustenance. Amphibians make tasty snacks for the pelican as well. Pelicans perch on land but swim with webbed toes and winged swimming.

 

Pelicans might be ground nesters or tree nesters when not skimming the water for edibles. Pelicans borrow the frigate bird habit of pirating prey from other birds. Pelicans are obvious to oncoming fish and even birds but the relative size and strength of the pelican jaws and powerful beak often carry the day. Pelican beaks operate as dipping and draining nets. Water fowl and small fish and crustaceans make a healthy diet rich in proteins.

 

Pelican prey rarely see more than the business end of the beak. Pelican over flights can quickly become swooping “take out” dives. Groups of pelicans pick over ebbing tides and food bearing waves en masse. The beak can pulsate and form a cooling “refrigerator” pulsing in hot weather. Flock behavior in pelicans allows modeling and such nurturing aids in teaching pelican young appropriate hunting behavior and habits. Estuaries and water shallows allow premium hunting.

 

Pelicans are white, brown, Dalmatian spotted, and spot billed in rarer species. Under parts and beaks have differentiating colorations through immature into pelican adulthood. Pink bills or wing accents can be found in tropical subspecies. Webby feet means pelicans can propel brush into nests, and use wings for leverage and manipulation.

 

Pelicans feed in groups and may incubate in shifts. Incubation may be aided by the feet! Pelicans bond for the mating and hatching, and then begin their process anew. Pelicans feed by regurgitating their considerable pouch contents. Pelicans encounter survival issues when their feeding patterns and fishing and nesting activities run across commercial fishing nets, wiring, and arrested nesting and mating cycles.

 

Pelicans have the general posture and feeding dynamic when swimming on water like a swan, except the bill is not as aesthetic and much more utilitarian. The long, bent angle neck distinguishes pelicans on water from swans and their wingspan and conventional knees from flamingoes. Pelicans possess an oddly peaceful seriousness which makes other birds seems less purposeful.

 

The pelican beak bill and pouch engine work to get food, develop it for eating, and sore it for later chewing, digestion and swallowing. The huge pelican beak propels it well forward on the bird’s bent neck. The naked skin pouch is within the bent neck head’s eyeline. The unique webbing of the pelican “feet” for provides for the one bird designed unmistakably truly meant to inhabit sea scouring.

 

The pelican’s normal forward posture over hours and day and months would otherwise be stressed without the strong pelican bill. The curving neck and offset body provide for back support by placing the bulk of fishing equipment in the beakbill. But Nature has provided that the long neck, tiny head and powerful wings and beak organize efficient feeding.

 

The pelican storage pouch, suspended from the lower half of the hooked pelican beak/bill, holds two or three times more material than the bird's stomach. In a full grown pelican this could mean as much as 3 gallons of water and fish. The water drains out, nutrients strained and water discarded. Thus the discard shells, bones, rocks, and salt ingested in the scoop batch will be separated from minnow fish, surface sea life and other prey.

 

Pelicans as pets require a flock for natural breeding purposes and unlimited expanse of seashore. Veterinary care would require substantial resources not available to many domestication bird scenarios. Protecting a pet pelican and domesticating it during mating and nesting would be more than even a skilled bird watcher’s resources.

 

Please visit the Tropical Bird Forum for information about tropical birds.

 

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