Brown Pelican

Pelecanus occidentalisOrder: PELECANIFORMES Family: Pelicans (Pelecanidae)

Codes: Common Name: BRPE Scientific Name: PELOCC ITIS Taxonomic No.: 174685

Birdman Mel's Backyard Tips

Overview

Brown Pelican: Large, unmistakable seabird, gray-brown body, dark brown, pale yellow head and neck, oversized bill. Black legs, webbed feet. Feeds on fish by plunge diving and scooping them up with pouch. Powerful flight alternates flaps with short glides. Flies close to the water in straight line.

Range and Habitat

Brown Pelican: Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts north to Nova Scotia, occasionally found inland. Preferred habitats include sandy coastal beaches and lagoons, waterfronts and pilings, and rocky cliffs.

Topo Map: Duck-like Body

Listen to Call

Voice Text

Generally silent

Interesting Facts

The Brown Pelican can hold about three gallons of water (and fish) in its pouch. They have air sacks beneath their skin and in their bones that make them very buoyant.

The Brown Pelican incubates its eggs in an unusual manner; it covers them with its webbed feet. This practice was detrimental to the species when the pesticide DDT was in common use. This pesticide caused thinning of the eggshells resulting in so many broken eggs that the species became endangered.

Though adult pelicans may consume as much as four pounds of fish per day, they do not compete with sport or commercial fishermen because of type of fish they eat.

A group of pelicans has many collective nouns, including a "brief", "pod", "pouch", "scoop", and "squadron" of pelicans.

Bird Term Glossary

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Brown Pelican

● Song: Generally silent

● Foraging & Feeding: Brown Pelican: Eats mostly menhaden, accounting for over 90 percent of diet, but also preys on pigfish, pinfish, herring, sheepshead, silversides, mullet, top minnows, and crustaceans, usually prawns. Plunge dives to catch fish.

● Breeding & nesting: Brown Pelican: Lays two to four white eggs in a nest made of reeds, grass, straw, and sticks, and built in a tree; or builds a ground nest consisting of a shallow scrape lined with feathers and a surrounding rim of soil 4 to 6 inches high. Usually nests in colonies. Incubation ranges from 28 to 30 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Brown Pelican: None in range.

Flight Pattern

Graceful., Powerful flight with deliberate wing beats alternating with short glides.

● Range & Habitat: Brown Pelican: Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts north to Nova Scotia, occasionally found inland. Preferred habitats include sandy coastal beaches and lagoons, waterfronts and pilings, and rocky cliffs.

^BreedingMonogamous, Colonial

^PopulationFairly common to common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight131.2 Ounces

Duck-like Body

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America

Brown Pelican

Birdman Mel's Backyard Tips

Overview

Range and Habitat

Topo Map: Duck-like Body

Listen to Call

Voice Text

Interesting Facts

Bird Term Glossary

Author

Related Birds

Brown Pelican

Flight Pattern