Birds of Birdland: Pelicans

Most people have seen a pelican either in photographs, in nature books, at the zoo, or even in the wild. They are an odd but familiar sight, and they are fun birds to watch. In Birdland, you can find a pelican to adopt out to your friends or purchase for yourself with Facebook credits, and here are the basics about pelicans that every bird lover will want to know.

Pelicans are large birds with large pouched bills. The smallest is the Brown Pelican, small individuals of which can be as little as 6 lb, and 42 in long and can have a wingspan of as little as 6 ft. The largest is believed to be the Dalmatian Pelican, at up to 33 lb, 72 in long, with a maximum wingspan of nearly 10 foot. But, the Australian Pelican has the longest bill of any bird. Pelicans swim very well with their short, strong legs especially since their feet have all four toes webbed. Their tail is short and square, with 20 to 24 feathers and is one of the main noticable signs of the pelican. The wings are long and have the unusually large number of 30 to 35 secondary flight feathers. A layer of special fibers deep in the breast muscles can hold the wings rigidly horizontal for gliding and soaring. Thus they can exploit thermals to commute over 100 miles to feeding areas. Pelicans rub the backs of their heads on their preen glands to pick up its oily secretion, which they transfer to their plumage to waterproof it.

The diet of a Pelican usually consists of fish, but they also eat amphibians, crustaceans and on some occasions, smaller birds. They often catch fish by expanding the throat pouch. Then they must drain the pouch above the surface before they can swallow. This operation takes up to a minute, during which time other seabirds are particularly likely to steal the fish. Pelicans in their turn sometimes pirate prey from other seabirds. The white pelicans often fish in groups. They will form a line to chase schools of small fish into shallow water, and then scoop them up. Large fish are caught with the bill-tip, then tossed up in the air to be caught and slid into the gullet head first. The Brown Pelican of North America usually plunge-dives for its prey. Rarely, other species such as the Peruvian Pelican and the Australian Pelican practice this method.

Pelicans are gregarious and nest colonially. The ground-nesting (white) species have a complex communal courtship involving a group of males chasing a single female in the air, on land, or in the water while pointing, gaping, and thrusting their bills at each other. They can finish the process in a day. The tree-nesting species have a simpler process in which perched males advertise for females. In all species copulation begins shortly after pairing and continues for 3 to 10 days before egg-laying. The male brings the nesting material, ground-nesters (which may not build a nest) sometimes in the pouch and tree-nesters crosswise in the bill. The female then heaps the material up to form a simple structure.

Both sexes incubate with the eggs on top of or below the feet. They may display when changing shifts. All species lay at least two eggs, and hatching success for undisturbed pairs can be as high as 95 percent, but because of competition between siblings or outright siblicide, usually all but one nestling dies within the first few weeks (or later in the Pink-backed and Spot-billed species). The young are fed copiously. Before or especially after being fed, they may seem to have a seizure that ends in falling unconscious; the reason is not clearly known. Parents of ground-nesting species have another strange behavior: they sometimes drag older young around roughly by the head before feeding them. The young of these species gather in "pods" or "crèches" of up to 100 birds in which parents recognize and feed only their own offspring. By 6 to 8 weeks they wander around, occasionally swimming, and may practice communal feeding.

Young of all species fledge 10 to 12 weeks after hatching. They may remain with their parents afterwards, but are now seldom or never fed. Overall breeding success is highly inconsistent. Pairs are monogamous for a single season, but the pair bond extends only to the nesting area; mates are independent away from the nest.

While pelicans are found all over the world, they are very sensitive to environmental damage that is done to their homes. The Pelican environment suffered significant ecosystem damage from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico petroleum disaster. Dead pelicans were seen on Raccoon Island, the largest pelican rookery in Louisiana. Rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina, it was home to more than 60,000 pelicans, but since the oil spill mature pelicans are scarce. Instead, there are thousands of dead birds and emaciated and abandoned juvenile and baby birds.