SmugMug > keywords > occidentalis > Brown pelican in flight, Loreto, Sea of Cortez.
SmugMug > keywords > occidentalis > Brown pelicans feeding on bait fish being thrown by fisherman, Loreto, Sea of Cortez.
SmugMug > keywords > occidentalis > Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis
December, Fort De Soto Park, Florida
Canon EOS 400D/XTi | Canon EF100-400 IS USM
SmugMug > keywords > occidentalis > Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis
December, Fort De Soto Park, Florida
Canon EOS 400D/XTi | Canon EF100-400 IS USM
SmugMug > keywords > occidentalis > Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis
February, Withlacoochee Bay Trail, Florida
Canon EOS 400D/XTi | Canon EF100-400 IS USM
SmugMug > keywords > occidentalis > Brown Pelican
SmugMug > keywords > occidentalis > Sunbathing pelican.

Pelicans are large birds with enormous, pouched bills and long wings. The smallest of the pelican is the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), small individuals of which can be as little as 2.75 kg (6 lbs), 106 cm (42 in) and have a wingspan of 1.83 m (6 ft). The largest pelican species is believed to be the Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus), at up to 15 kg (33 lbs), 183 cm (72 in) and a maximum wingspan of nearly 3.5 m (11.5 ft).

Pelicans have two primary ways of feeding:
@Group fishing: 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. 
@Plunge-diving: used almost exclusively by the American Brown Pelican, and rarely by white pelicans like the Peruvian Pelican or the Australian Pelican. 

Occasionally, pelicans will consume animals other than fish. In one documented case, a pelican swallowed a live pigeon. In fact, Pelicans are fairly opportunistic predators, and while fish forms the bulk of their diet due to being the most common food source where Pelicans nest, they will quite readily eat any other food that is available to them.

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; mates are independent away from the nest.

(taken from Wikipedia)
Brown pelican in flight, Loreto, Sea of Cortez.
 > Brown pelican in flight, Loreto, Sea of Cortez.
Brown pelican in flight, Loreto, Sea of Cortez.
Photo by: PaddyRyan • see photo in gallery

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