THE BROWN PELICAN
The adult brown pelican is a large dark gray-brown water bird
with white about the head and neck. Young pelicans are born
without feathers but soon grow a down coat. Immatures are gray-brown
above and on the neck, with white underparts. The Eastern Brown
Pelican can reach up to 8 pounds, and larger individuals have wing
spreads of over 7 feet.
Pelican legs are short, their necks long, and their feet have all four toes webbed to aid in swimming. Pelicans can be found on all continents except for Antarctica.
Brown pelicans nest in colonies mostly on small coastal islands. The nests are usually built in mangrove trees of similar size vegetation, but ground nesting may also occur. Ground nests vary from practically nothing to well built nests of sticks, reeds, straws, palmetto leaves, and grasses. Tree nests are made of similar materials, only they are more firmly constructed.
The eastern subspecies nests mostly in early spring or summer, although fall and winter nesting have been recorded in some localities. Normal clutch size for the brown pelican is three eggs. All courtship behavior is confined to the nest site. The male carries nesting materials to the females and she builds the nest. Both share in incubation and rearing duties.
The species is considered to be long-lived; one pelican captured in Edgewater, Florida, in November 1964, was found to have been banded in September 1933, over 31 years previously.
The brown pelican is found along the coast in California and from
North Carolina to Texas, Mexico, the West Indies and many Caribbean
Islands, and to Guyana and Venezuela in South America.
Pelicans species include:
Australian Pelican
Brown Pelican
Dalmation Pelican
Eastern (Great White) Pelican
Peruvian Pelican
Pink Backed Pelican
Spot Billed Pelican
Brown Pelicans (the smallest species) and the Peruvian Pelicans dive for their meals. All of the other six species of pelicans skim fish from the water as they swim along, using the bill as a fish net.
The Brown lives strictly on coasts (the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts), though some immature birds may stray to inland freshwater lakes. After nesting, North American birds move in flocks further north along the coasts, returning to warmer waters for winter, and can be found n coastal areas like sandy beaches and lagoons, waterfronts and marinas.
This bird is distinguished from the American White Pelican by its
brown body and its habit of diving for fish from the air, as opposed
to co-operative fishing from the surface. It eats mainly herring-like
fish. Groups of Brown Pelicans often travel in single file, flying
low over the water's surface.
Pesticides like DDT threatened the future of the Pelican in the southeast United States (Florida) and California in the early 1970s, and the Brown Pelican was placed on the Endangered Species List. A research group from the University of Tampa conducted research in the Tampa Bay/St Petersburg area and found that DDT caused the pelican eggshells to be overly-thin and incapable of supporting the embryo to maturity. As a result of this research, DDT usage was eliminated in Florida and the rest of the country.
The Brown Pelican (the state bird of Louisiana) is divided into four subspecies:
The Eastern Brown Pelican
The Caribbean Brown Pelican
The Galapagos Brown Pelican
The brown pelican is a plunge diver. It drops from the air with its wings partly folded and dives into the water to catch its prey. It is the only species of pelican that does this! It uses its bill and pouch like a net. It scoops up fish and water. It strains out the water from the side of its bill, tips back its head and swallows the fish it caught. It doesn't carry fish in its pouch, it only uses the pouch to scoop up fish.
The brown pelican eats schooling fish close to the water's edge, including anchovies, herring, Pacific mackerel, minnows, sardines, menhaden. herring, mullet, sheepshead, silversides and other fish. It also eats crustaceans.
The Brown Pelican has been long protected by the Migratory Bird
Treaty Act of 1918 and was listed as Endangered as early as 1970
by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services prior to the formal listing of
this bird under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Like our nation's
great Bald Eagle, Pelicans suffered the threat of extinction
throughout its range and diminished populations from ingestion of
the toxic pesticide DDT before it was banned. Populations in the
U.S. Gulf Coast off the shores of Louisiana have now recovered to
a recent estimate of 6,000 breeding pairs. This was accomplished
through reintroduction of the Eastern Brown Pelican species using
young Florida Pelicans to reintroduce the species back into Gulf
Coast territory.
While the brown pelican population on the Atlantic Coast of the United States has fully recovered, brown pelicans on the Pacific coast remain on the Endangered Species List. About 4,500 to 5,000 breeding pairs remain in California.
Human activities, such as destruction and disturbance of breeding and resting habitats, still threaten these birds. Abandoned fishing lines and hooks can entangle and injure pelicans, which often rest near shore. When you fish, please make sure you don't leave fishing lines or hooks behind; if you find abandoned fishing line on the beach or wharf, be sure to throw it away. And never, ever use the plastic six-pack rings near the water!
Carelessness can condemn these beautiful pelicans to an early death. Their pouches can be cut by fishing hooks and can not always be repaired. When people are conscientious and keep track of their discardings, much suffering is avoided. Anyone who notices and picks up discarded fishing line and hooks potentially saves the life of a sea animal. It's not hard to do!
But maybe you don't live near a coastal area and can't be of "hands-on" help to the seabirds. You can still play a part right in your area by sending a donation to those who do work with them every day. Save Our Seabirds is rehabilitation facility located in the Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg area of Florida. I have put their link below. The other rehab facility is one that is dear to my heart. C.R.O.W (Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife), located in Sanibel Island, Florida. Though not exclusively a pelican rehab, the work of Dr. PJ Deitschel and her staff is inexhaustive. No one could be more deserving of your donated dollars.
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