

  albatross dove
  blue jay duck
  canary eagle
  cardinal emu
  cassowary falcon
  chicken finch
  condor flamingo
  crane goose
  crow hawk
  cuckoo hummingbird
dodo ibis

  kingfisher ostrich
kiwi owl
kookaburra parakeet
lark parrot
lovebird peacock
macaw pelican
mockingbird penguin
nightingale pheasant
osprey pigeon

  quail swan
rhea swift
roadrunner toucan
robin turkey
seagull vulture
starling woodpecker
stork wren




A pelican is any of several very large water birds with a distinctive pouch under the beak belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae. Along with the darters, cormorants, gannets, boobies, frigate birds, and tropicbirds, they make up the order Pelecaniformes. Like other birds in that group, pelicans have all four toes webbed.


Who Needs Variety? The seven species of pelican are generally similar in shape, and except for one species, have white plumage. Their most famous feature is their elongated bills and massive throat pouches. The bill can grow to be 40-50 cm long, and is usually larger in males than females.

for example:
Spot-billed Pelican: This is a small pelican, at 125-150 cm length. It is mainly white, with a grey crest, hind neck and tail. In breeding plumage, there is a pink tone to the rump and under wings. Non-breeders are off-white in these areas, and immature birds are more extensively brown. As the species' name implies, there are grey spots on the pink bill in the breeding season.


Two Ways of Feeding:

1. Group fishing is a technique used by white pelicans all over the world. They will form a line to chase schools of small fish into shallow water, and then simply 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.

2. Plunge-diving, used almost exclusively by the American
Brown Pelican, but only rarely by white pelicans like the Peruvian Pelican of the western South American coast, or the Australian Pelican.

Ancient Species Almost Everywhere: From the fossil record, it is known that pelicans have been around for over 40 million years. Modern pelicans are found on all continents except Antarctica: they are birds of inland and coastal waters and are absent from polar regions, the deep ocean, oceanic islands, and inland South America.

Nesting Season: Pelicans are gregarious and nest colonially, the male bringing the material, the female heaping it up to form a simple structure. Pairs are monogamous for a single season but the pair bond extends only to the nesting area; away from the nest mates are independent.



Nest and Nestlings: White Pelicans nest in colonies of several hundred pairs on islands in remote brackish and freshwater lakes of inland North America. The most northerly nesting colony can be found on islands in the rapids of the Slave River between Fort Fitzgerald, Alberta and Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. The female lays 2 or 3 eggs in a shallow depression on the ground. Both parents incubate.They winter in central California and along the Pacific coast of Guatemala; also along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Pelicans in Danger: Shooting by poachers is the largest known cause of mortality. Colonies are sensitive to disturbance and visits by humans can cause the pelicans to leave and abandon their nests. This species is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1972.


Pelican Symbolism:


This legend may have arisen because the pelican used to suffer from a disease that left a red mark on its chest. Alternatively it may be that pelicans look as if they are doing that as they often press their bill into their chest to fully empty their pouch.


Pelican Species:

Pelecanus occidentalis, Brown Pelican
Pelecanus thagus, Peruvian Pelican
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, American White Pelican
Pelecanus onocrotalus, Great White Pelican
Pelecanus crispus, Dalmatian Pelican
Pelecanus rufescens, Pink-backed Pelican
Pelecanus philippensis, Spot-billed Pelican
Pelecanus conspicillatus, Australian Pelican




 Kingdom: Animalia

 Phylum: Chordata

 Class: Aves

 Order: Pelecaniformes

 Family: Pelecanidae

 Genus: Pelecanus