Pelecanus occidentalis
brown pelican

Brown pelicans are strictly coastal, and living on the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts north to Nova Scotia.

Brown Pelicans live in all habitats on the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts. They are rarely seen inland.

Brown pelicans are dark and bulky. The sexes are similar in plumage and both are 4-4.5 ft (114-137 cm) long. The head is white with a pale yellow wash on the crown; the long bill is grayish; back, rump, and tail are streaked with gray and dark brown; the breast and belly are a blackish-brown; eyes pale yellow; and legs and feet are black. Immatures have brownish- grey necks and white underparts. All pelicans have bills that are as long or longer than their heads. The huge naked skin pouch suspended from the lower half of the hooked bill holds two or three times more than the bird's stomach-about 3 gallons of water and fish. Pelicans hold their catch and let the water drain from the corners of their mouths before they swallow. Fish are never carried in the pouch, but in the gullet or esophagus. The pouch, besides acting as a dip net, is also pulsated in extreme heat to allow cooling. Pelicaniformes are the only birds that share in common a totipalmate foot, that is, one in which all four toes, including the hind one, are united by a web of skin.

Male pelicans pick out the nesting sites and perform an "advertising" display which attracts the females. Once a pair forms a bond, overt communiction between them is minimal. Pelican nesting peaks during March and April; nests are in colonies either in trees, bushes, or on the ground. Those placed in trees are made of reeds, grasses, straw, and sticks; if on the ground, nests consist of a shallow scrape lined with feathers and a rim of soil built 4-10'' above the ground. Brown Pelicans lay 2-3 chalky white eggs. Incubation is about 28-30 days; young walk out of the nests on the ground about 35 days after hatching but do not leave treetop nests until about 63 -88 days for their first flight.

Pelicans are very gregarious birds; they live in flocks of both sexes throughout the year. They are exceptionally buoyant due to the internal air sacks beneath their skin and in their bones, and as graceful in the air as they are clumsy on land. In level flight, pelicans fly in groups, with their heads held back on their shoulders, the bills resting on their folded necks. They may fly in a "V", but usually in regular lines or single file.

Brown pelicans dive from the air for fish. Menhaden account for 90-95% of their food. They also prey on pigfish, pinfish, herring, sheepshead, silversides, mullet, grass and top minnows, and they sometimes eat crustaceans, usually prawns.

Though an adult pelican requires as much as 4 lbs of fish a day, they have been shown to not compete with commercial or sport fisherman, as they don't eat the same "quality" of fish as humans do.

In the sixties and seventies, brown pelican populations decreased dramatically due to the consumption of fish that contained DDT and other hard pesticides. DDT causes the egg shells to be thinned to the point that the young can not survive. Populations recovered somewhat after DDT became unavailable; the range of this species has been slightly reduced.