Everything You Need To Know About The Pelican

Look around the pelican

The pelican is one of the types of water birds belonging to the genus “Pelicans” ( Pelecanus ), the “pelicans” family ( Pelecanidae ), and the order ( Pelecaniformes ). It is distinguished by its large flexible throat bags. These birds live in lakes, rivers, and coasts. Marine species are found in several parts of the world, and some species reach a length of 180 cm (70 inches), their wingspan reaches 3 meters (10 feet), and their mass reaches 13 kg (30 pounds). Accordingly, they are considered one of the largest living birds. .

Pelicans are usually found in colonies on islands; The white pelican is found in North America on the islands in the lakes of north-central and western North America, while the brown pelican is found along the tropical and subtropical shores of both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Types of pelicans

There are two famous species of pelicans called: the American White Pelican (scientific name: P. erythrorhynchos) in the New World, and the Great White Pelican (scientific name: P. onocrotalus) in the Old World.

Other types of swans include:

The Dalmatian Pelican ( scientific name: Pelecanus crispus), which is the largest known species of pelican, and the heaviest creature that can fly in the world.

Pink-backed pelican ( scientific name: Pelecanus rufescens), which is widespread in Africa and southern Arabia.

Spot-Billed Pelican, which is widespread in Sri Lanka and Thailand, is an endangered species.

Brown Pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis ).

In late 2009, the smaller brown pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis ) , which ranges between 107 and 137 cm in length, was listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, due to a significant decline in its numbers on the North American continent as a result of the use of DDT. DT and related pesticides.

Brown pelicans

Brown pelicans ( Pelecanus occidentalis ) live mainly along the southern coasts of the United States (Atlantic, Gulf, or Pacific Oceans). One of the most important features of this type of pelican is that it incubates its eggs with the skin of its feet and stands on the eggs to keep them warm. The unfortunate thing that happened in the middle of the twentieth century was that the pesticide DDT caused genetic changes in this bird, which caused the females to lay thin-shelled eggs, which led to them cracking under the feet of the parents during incubation, and thus their almost disappearance from North America in the 1960s and 1970s of the last century. .

The Peruvian pelican is slightly larger than the brown pelican, but it has soft white stripes on its lower parts. It and the brown pelican are the only two species that dive into the water to get their food. It is worth noting here that the oldest brown pelican recorded is 43 years old. .

White/Australian pelican

The seven species of pelicans found around the world are similar in appearance, with the exception of the Australian white pelican ( Pelecanus conspicillatus ), which is mainly white in color and the males are larger than the females. They are characterized by an elongated beak with a huge throat sac, as the length of their beak ranges from 40 cm to 50 cm, and the beak of males is larger than that of females, in addition to having large wings, and their wingspan ranges between 2.3 m – 2.5 m.

Australian pelicans can often be found around coastlines throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea, western Indonesia, New Zealand, and various western Pacific islands.

Feeding method

Pelicans hunt by swimming in cooperative groups, forming a line or a “U” shape, then pushing the fish into shallow water by beating their wings on the surface of the water, to collect the fish after that when they gather. On the other hand, brown pelicans dive into the water from The top then catches fish with its beak.

It is worth noting here that swans do not store fish in their pouch, but they use them to hunt and catch fish, then turn them back to get rid of the water and swallow the fish immediately. The American white pelican can keep about 11 liters of water in its pouch. As for young swans, they feed By inserting their beaks into their parents’ throats to get food.

Reproduction

The swan lays one to four bluish-white eggs in its nest, and the young ones hatch within about a month. They then feed on food while ruminating, which is obtained from the parents, as mentioned previously. It takes a young swan about three to four years to reach puberty, and the sexes are similar. In appearance, males are larger than females.