Brown Pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis
The Brown Pelican is a prehistoric-looking beast with a grayish-brown body and a massive, 18-inch bill. Adults feature a white or yellowish head and a dark neck that turns a rich chestnut color during the breeding season. They are heavy-bodied birds, but they are surprisingly graceful in flight, often gliding just inches above the wave tops. Their most iconic feature is the gular pouch—a stretchy skin bag under the beak that can hold up to three gallons of water (that’s about three times what their actual stomach can hold).
Strictly coastal. They inhabit estuaries, marine lagoons, mangrove swamps, and sandy beaches. Unlike the White Pelican, they rarely venture far inland into freshwater lakes.
Found along the ocean shores of North and South America. On the Atlantic coast, they range from the Mid-Atlantic states down through the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and along the Pacific coast.
Red = Year-round Non-Breeding
Omitted for simplified presentation: population on Galapagos Islands.
Source: Frank Schulenburg (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Distinctive plunge-divers that feed almost exclusively on fish.
- Wild: They hunt schooling fish like menhaden, mullet, and anchovies. They are the only pelican species that dives from the air to stun and scoop up prey.
- Zoo: A managed diet of whole fish (such as capelin, herring, or smelt) supplemented with thiamine and vitamin E to replace nutrients lost in frozen fish.
- Wild: 15 – 25 years
- Captivity: 30+ years
- The Pouch: Their throat pouch (gular pouch) can hold up to 3 gallons of water—three times what their stomach can hold. They must tilt their heads to drain the water before they can swallow the fish.
- Success Story: They were nearly wiped out by DDT in the 1970s (which caused eggshell thinning) but have made a remarkable recovery after the pesticide was banned.
- Impact Absorbers: They have air sacs beneath their skin that cushion the impact when they hit the water during a dive.
