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Pelecanus occidentalis
The brown pelican's scientific name is Pelecanus occidentalis. The family it belongs to are the birds or more specifically the family of the Pelecanidae .It is a large, diving water bird, weighing up to 3.5 kilograms (8 pounds) and having a wingspan of up to 2 meters (7 ft). The adult brown pelican has a light brown body with white about the head and neck, which are often tinged with yellow. In breeding season, the back of neck turns dark brown and a yellow patch appears at the base of the fore-neck. Immature pelicans are gray-brown above and on the neck, with white under-parts.
Brown pelicans are rarely found away from salt water and do not normally venture more than about 32 kilometers (20 miles) out to sea. They feed almost entirely on fish captured by plunge diving. They are colonial nesters that use small, inaccessible coastal islands as breeding sites. Nesting occurs primarily in early spring and summer. The male carries nesting materials to the female and she builds the nest. The nests are usually built in mangrove trees of similar size vegetation, but ground nesting may also occur. Ground nests vary from practically nothing to well-built nests of sticks, reeds, straws, palmetto leaves, and grasses. Tree nests are made of similar materials, only they are more firmly constructed. The normal clutch size is three eggs and both sexes participate in incubation. Young are born naked and helpless and acquire down after about ten days. Fledging takes place at 12 weeks.
Many brown pelicans stay close to their nesting sites throughout the winter and their population fluctuates considerably from year to year and from place to place.
The species is considered to be long-lived; one pelican captured in Edgewater, Florida, in November 1964, was found to have a band dated September 1933, over 31 years previously.
The brown pelican is found along the coast in California and from North Carolina to Texas, Mexico, the West Indies and many Caribbean islands, and to Guyanaand Venezuela in South America.
After breeding season, flocks move north along both Atlantic and Pacific coasts. These birds return southwards to warmer waters by winter. Small numbers of immature pelicans regularly wander inland in summer especially in Southwest.
Bibliography
The Brown Pelican: "WWF Guide to Endangered Species"
"BOOK OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS"; Project Editor: James Cassidy; Reader's Digest
"Complete field guide to American Wildlife" by Henry Hill Collins, Junior; Harper and Row Publishers New York
http://www.fws.gov/r9endspp.html
pelican photo credits - http://www.angelfire.com/ga/ElisabethHomePage/page6.html
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