![]() Breeding season for American white pelicans lasts from late March to early May. Every year, something weird happens to the adults. THE AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN GROWS A TEMPORARY “HORN.”Īn impressive bird indigenous to North America, this pelican stands around 4 feet tall and sports a 9-foot wingspan. To increase their chances of success, the birds occasionally form hunting parties, gathering in a U-shape and beating their wings on the water to corral fish into a tight cluster-or drive them into the shallows. Most pelicans don't dive bomb their prey they scoop it up while treading along on the water’s surface. Young brown and Peruvian pelicans struggle with their marksmanship at first, but over time, they get better at successfully dive-bombing fish. Air sacs under the skin around their neck and breast area inflate before the bird hits the water’s surface, and the gular pouch behaves like an air bag: the instant a bird’s jaws are thrown open under the water, its forward momentum is slowed. To keep their neck vertebrae from getting broken, they stiffen the surrounding muscles as they dive by throwing their wings straight backwards, pelicans can avoid fracturing any of the bones in the appendages on the unforgiving waves. It’s a dangerous stunt, but pelicans have numerous adaptations that keep them from injuring themselves when they smack into the water. When they collide with the prey, the impact force usually stuns the victim and it’s then scooped up in the gular pouch. Once a target has been spotted from above, the pelicans plunge into the sea bill-first at high speeds-and often from a height of several stories. Its bigger cousin, the Peruvian pelican, also has great vision. The brown pelican is a keen-eyed predator that can spot a fish swimming under the ocean’s surface even while flying 60 feet above. If it can fit down their throats, it’s fair game. Attacks like that aren’t unusual: Although pelicans specialize in eating fish, they also prey on crustaceans, amphibians, turtles, and-yes-other birds. In 2006, Londoners were shocked when a pigeon was swallowed whole by a great white pelican in front of some horrified kids at St. ![]() (Fun fact: Some species can hold three gallons’ worth of liquid in their gular sacs.) Usually, the prey is swallowed immediately after the water purge. Once a pelican captures its prey, the bird drains any water it may have accidentally captured with it by tilting its head and contracting those pouch muscles. The highly-flexible sacs can expand or contract, and the lower jaw bones they’re connected to are capable of bowing outwards, which enables the birds to use their sacs as fishing nets. ![]() In reality, pelicans use their gular pouches as a means of capturing food-not as a place to keep it tucked away for extended periods. While the rhyme is amusing, it isn’t accurate. He can hold in his beak enough food for a week.īut I’ll be damned if I can see how the helican." His beak can hold more than his belly can. The idea was popularized by a limerick of unknown authorship: Many people mistakenly believe it’s used to store food, like a built-in lunch box. The large, fibrous skin pouch that dangles from a pelican's bill is called the gular pouch (or, occasionally, the gular sac). THEY DON'T STORE FOOD IN THE POUCH ON THEIR BILLS. The question of where pelicans fit on the avian family tree has been debated for centuries, though genetic evidence now suggests that their closest extant relatives are the bizarre-looking shoebill and a wading bird known as the hamerkop. Today, there are eight living species and you can find some combination of them dwelling on every continent except Antarctica. Paleontologists have also uncovered younger material from places like Germany, India, Kenya, Peru, Australia, and North Carolina. The earliest pelican fossil on record is a 30-million-year-old skull that was found in the Oligocene deposits of France. THE PELICAN FAMILY IS AT LEAST 30 MILLION YEARS OLD. Here are 10 things you might not have known about these eccentric birds. ![]() They’ve got interesting feet, spectacular hunting habits, and throat pouches that can trap a lot more than fish. Here’s a scoop for you: Pelicans are awesome.
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