The Howland Picture Pages: Brown Pelican

Page by Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/11/04 22:02:25 $ (UTC)

The Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is one of two Pelican species found in North America, with its more widespread cousin the American White Pelican being the other. The Brown Pelican has about 80% of the wingspan and only half the weight of the American White. But the Brown Pelican's breeding colors make it a more resplendent bird than the stark black and white of its cousin. In flight, both types of Pelican bring to mind some kind of avian bomber as they glide or ponderously flap along water ways, often in formation. The Brown Pelican adds to the trademark Pelican style of flight a much more agile and twisting character when it dives into the water after fish.

Brown Pelicans are located reliably all year long along the mid and southern coasts of both the eastern and western United States, as well as sporadically inland across many states. These birds are not often seen in Canada, and then on the far eastern or western coasts, not much beyond the border. They are essentially unknown in Calgary or other inland locations in Canada, unlike the American White Pelican which we do get. Thus we typically see Brown Pelicans when visiting coastal birding spots in the U.S. Populations have been recovering well, recently, in part due to the ban on DDT, the previous use of which was a major factor in the severe decline of the species.

Resources where you can find out more:

• Brown Pelican profile at CLO including sound sample
• Brown Pelican profile at the USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

(click image for larger photo)

This Brown Pelican was one of several that did a fly-by as we watched various species of birds at a coastal spot in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, on the Texas coast. On this occasion we didn't get to see any doing their twisting dive into the water, as they were mostly just moving along the shore. This photo was taken hand-held with a Canon EOS 10D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens. The exposure is quite drab since the weather was severely overcast on our brief visit to the NWR. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 192 true color Shutter speed: 1/500.00 F-stop: 5.6 ISO speed: 200 Focal length: 400.0000 Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Manual Exposure bias: 0.0000 Canon focus mode: AI Focus Canon contrast: Normal Canon saturation: 2 Canon sharpness: 2 Canon metering mode: Center-weighted Canon exposure mode: Av-priority Canon white balance: Cloudy Camera make: Canon Camera model: Canon EOS 10D Larger photo info:   640 x 383 true color 189KB

Copyright Notice

Unless stated otherwise, all photos and other content on these pages is copyright © 2002 - 2004 by Royce Howland.

Please don't steal anything for your own purposes, in particular if you have a plan for making fabulous stacks of cash in so doing. If you would like to use a photo or other content you find here, or just want to contact us about something, please send email to royce@3ge.com.