Pelicans are a large water bird that makes up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterised by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped up contents before swallowing.
Pelicans frequent inland and coastal waters where they feed principally on fish, catching them at or near the water surface. They are gregarious birds, travelling in flocks, hunting cooperatively and breeding colonially. Four white-plumaged species tend to nest on the ground, and four brown or grey-plumaged species nest mainly in trees.
The fossil record shows that the pelican lineage has existed for at least 30 million years.
The eight living pelican species were traditionally divided into two groups, one containing four ground-nesters with mainly white adult plumage (Australian, Dalmatian, great white, and American white pelicans), and one containing four grey or brown plumaged species which nest preferentially either in trees (pink-backed, spot-billed and brown pelicans), or on sea rocks (Peruvian pelican). (ref Wikipedia)
Our local pelicans seem to like sitting on top of the light poles especially in winter. The shape of the light and the warmth it generates makes a perfect place to park overnight.
We left our car at the boat ramp one weekend when we went over to Moreton Island. We returned on Sunday afternoon to find the car totally covered in Pelican poo. Seriously, you could not drive the car because you could not see out of the windows. So take heed, check the ground for pelican poo before parking your vehicle. That stuff does not wash off easily!
This photograph is a little shaky. I started to move during the shot because I thought he was going to land on me!
Pelican putting on the brakes
Neat place to roost 🙂
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Nice and warm I bet 🙂
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Very nice shots, we rarely see them in SA, but saw them, also on lamp poles in Namibia.
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Thank you. We had quite an up-roar from many of the residents in the area when the local council put wire on the top of the lights across the bridge to prevent the pelicans roosting on them. It was a sight to see as we came across the bridge in the evenings. Every light had 2 or even 3 pelicans perched on them. It’s a very long bridge. 2.468 kilometres. I guess it could have been a safety issue if a driver’s vision was impaired if the windscreen was pooped on, but to my knowledge in all the years the pelicans sat on the poles nobody had an accident because of them.
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All I can say is good intentions can sometimes have bad results.
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Lovely images of a beautiful bird – I remember seeing them at the beach in NSW and Victoria, their big fried egg eyes and beautiful feathers.
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Thank you Helen. They definitely are beautiful birds and pleasant natured as well. I have not heard of them being aggressive which is lucky when you think about how big they are! 🙂 Remembering what it’s like to have a magpie swoop on me, I shudder to imagine a pelican doing it.
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What a marvellous bird is the pelican
Whose beak can hold more than his belly can! 🙂
Great shots there. 🙂
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Thanks Sue. They visit the jetty in front of our building most days. The fishermen throw them the odd fish and the local council have a pelican feeding program in the next bay around from us which is called Pelican Park 🙂
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Love the pelicans – you’ve captured them nicely. Shame about the poo though.
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Thanks Lone for your comments. I hope you enjoy the rest of your week. Not long to go before the weekend 🙂
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Thanks for sharing these! I’ve never seen a B/W pelican–they almost look like magpies! 🙂
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Thanks Lori, I’ve only ever seen the B/W pelicans. I only learnt they come in Brown/fawn when I googled some info on them. Thank goodness they don’t have the magpie temperament, imagine these guys swooping you. 😁
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Yikes!
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I love to see pelicans, and I’ve taken quite a few photos, but not as good as yours are of it in flight! Really well done: congratulations 🙂
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Thank you Margaret. Right place, right time. I was really chuffed when I downloaded them and saw how well they turned out.
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