January 1998
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Brown Pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis
“A wonderful bird is the pelican; his bill
can hold more than his belly can. . . . ”
So begins Dixon Lanier Merritt’s well-known
limerick. It is not far from the
truth. The pouch suspended from the
lower half of the pelican’s long, straight
bill really can hold up to three times
more than the stomach.
In addition to being used as a dip net,
the pouch holds the pelican’s catch of
fish until the accompanying water—as
much as three gallons— is squeezed
out. During this time, laughing gulls
may hover above the pelican, or even
sit on its bill, ready to steal a fish or
two. Once the water is out, the pelican
swallows the fish and carries them in its
esophagus. The pouch also serves as a
cooling mechanism in hot weather and
as a feeding trough for young pelicans.
Range and Description
The brown pelican, also called American
brown pelican or common pelican,
inhabits the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf
Coasts of North and South America. On
the Atlantic Coast, the species can be
found from Nova Scotia to Venezuela
and on the Pacific Coast, from British
Columbia to south-central Chile and the
Galapagos Islands. On the Gulf Coast,
the species is found in Florida, Alabama,
Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and
Mexico. The birds are fairly common
inland at the Salton Sea in California,
lakes in Florida, and bodies of water in
southeast Arizona.
Measuring up to 54 inches long,
weighing 8 to 10 pounds, and having a
wingspan between 6-1/2 feet and 7-1/2
feet, brown pelicans are the smallest
members of the seven pelican species
worldwide. They can be identified by
their chestnut-and-white necks; white
heads with pale yellow crowns; brown-streaked
back, rump, and tail; blackish-brown
belly; grayish bill and pouch; and
black legs and feet.
Behavior, Diet, and Nesting Habits
Pelicans are long-lived birds. One
pelican captured in Florida had been
banded 31 years earlier!
Brown pelicans are strong swimmers;
young ones barely able to fly have been
timed swimming at 3 m.p.h. Rather
clumsy on land, pelicans fly with their
necks folded and their heads resting on
their backs, using slow, powerful wing
beats.
Pelicans are primarily fish-eaters,
requiring up to four pounds of fish
a day. Their diet consists mainly of
“rough” fish such as menhaden, herring,
sheepshead, pigfish, mullet, grass
minnows, topminnows, and silversides.
On the Pacific Coast, pelicans rely
heavily on anchovies and sardines. The
birds have also been known to eat some
crustaceans, usually prawns.
Brown pelicans have extremely keen
eyesight. As they fly over the ocean,
sometimes at heights of 60 to 70 feet,
they can spot a school of small fish
or even a single fish. Diving steeply
into the water, they may submerge
completely or only partly—depending
on the height of the dive—and come up
with a mouthful of fish. Air sacs beneath
their skin cushion the impact and help
pelicans surface.
Pelicans are social and gregarious.
Males and females and juveniles and
adults congregate in large flocks for
much of the year.
Brown pelicans typically begin to breed
between the ages of 3 and 5 years.
The birds nest in large colonies on the
ground, in bushes, or in the tops of
trees. On the ground, a nest may be
a shallow depression lined with a few
feathers and a rim of soil built up four
to ten inches above ground, or it may be
a large mound of soil and debris with a
cavity in the top. A tree-top nest usually
consists of reeds, grass, and straw
heaped on a mound of sticks interwoven
with the supporting tree branches.
The male delivers material to the
female, who builds the nest. She
typically lays 2 to 3 chalky white eggs
that hatch in about a month. In most of
the nesting range of the pelican in the
United States—from South Carolina
to Florida in the East, in southern
California in the West, and in Alabama,
Louisiana, and Texas on the Gulf—peak
egg-laying usually occurs in March
through May.
Parents share in incubating the eggs
and raising the young. Like many
birds, newly hatched pelicans are
blind, featherless, and altricial—that
Brown pelican swimming
Lee Carney/USFWS
By the 1960s, brown pelicans had
nearly disappeared along the Gulf
Coast and experienced almost complete
reproductive failure in southern
California. Studies proving the pelicans
were not harming commercial fisheries
helped to stop their wholesale slaughter.
In 1970, under a law that preceded the
Endangered Species Act of 1973, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the
brown pelican as endangered, a term
that means the species is in danger of
extinction throughout all or a significant
portion of its range.
In 1972, the Environmental Protection
Agency banned the use of DDT in the
United States and restricted the use
of other pesticides. Since then, there
has been a decrease in the level of
chemical contaminants in pelican eggs,
and a corresponding increase in nesting
success.
Consistent Improvement
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife
and Fisheries’ reintroduction program
from 1968 to 1980 reestablished
brown pelicans in the State, while
natural recolonization and improved
reproduction restored the birds to
their historic numbers in Texas and
California. Brown pelicans responded
well to efforts by conservation partners
to protect, restore, and manage nesting
islands, as well as create new islands
with dredge spoils. These actions
improved reproductive success in
restoring the birds to their historic
numbers.
In 1985, brown pelicans in the eastern
United States, including Alabama, all
is, completely dependent upon their
parents. They soon develop down that
is soft and silky, followed by feathers.
Average age at first flight is 75 days.
Threats, Protection, and Recovery
Brown pelicans have few natural
enemies. Although ground nests are
sometimes destroyed by hurricanes,
flooding, or other natural disasters, the
biggest threat to pelicans comes from
people. In the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, pelicans were hunted for
their feathers, which adorned women’s
clothing, particularly hats.
Several efforts in the early part of
the 20th century were meant to curb
the decline of brown pelicans. In
1903, President Theodore Roosevelt
designated Florida’s Pelican Island as
the first national wildlife refuge, a move
that helped reduce the threat of plume
hunters. Passage of the Migratory Bird
Treaty Act in 1918 gave protection to
pelicans and other birds and helped
curb illegal killing.
During the food shortages following
World War I, commercial fishermen
claimed pelicans were decimating
their industry and slaughtered them
by the thousands. The nests were also
frequently raided for eggs.
With the advent and widespread use of
pesticides such as DDT in the 1940s,
pelican populations plummeted due to
lack of breeding success. When pelicans
ate fish contaminated with DDT, the
eggs that they laid had shells so thin
that they broke during incubation.
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Endangered Species Program
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room 420
Arlington, VA 22203
703-358-2171
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/
Prepared by:
Department of the Interior
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
November 2009
of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and
points northward along the Atlantic
Coast, had recovered to the point that
the populations were removed from
the Endangered Species List. The
U.S. Gulf Coast populations in Texas
and Louisiana, although still listed as
endangered, were recently estimated at
nearly 12,000 breeding pairs. The brown
pelican is also still listed as endangered
in the Pacific Coast portion of its range
and in Central and South America. The
population of the subspecies found in
southern California, which includes
nesting islands in Mexico, is estimated
at more than 11,000 breeding pairs.
As a result of the ban on the use of
DDT in the United States, as well as
complementary conservation efforts,
the species has made a strong comeback
and, in view of its improved status,
has been removed from the list of
threatened and endangered species
throughout its range. The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service now estimates the
global population of brown pelicans at
650,000 individuals.
Shutterstock
Ryan Hagerty/USFWS
