Why don’t you ever see any pelican babies?? What is so special about pelicans? The Pelican is an amazing bird that can be found on all continents except on the Antarctica. There are eight species, but all have the famous throat pouch for which they are best known.
Pelicans are big, bulky birds, standing as tall as 5 feet with a wingspan of as much as 10 feet, according to National Geographic and can weigh up to 20 pounds. Pelicans have the largest bill of all birds with a reach of 18 inches in length and a throat pouch that can hold 3 gallons of water. They can fly to the height of 10,000 feet using the warm wind currents.
The White Pelicans in Montana are long-distance migrants. The four Montana breeding colonies fall into two groupings divided into eastern and western colonies, based on flyway affiliation. Medicine Lake and Bowdoin are mostly connected to the Central Flyway, with the majority of birds flying south and east to the Gulf of Mexico coast and southern Midwest. There are sightings from southern Florida to Texas, and south in Mexico to Vera Cruz.
Birds at Arod/”Eyraud” Lakes and Canyon Ferry fly west across the Continental Divide and south to southern Idaho, California, western Mexico and Central America. Winter sightings have been made in southern California, south along the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America to southern Honduras. Many pelicans return in spring to their natal colonies for breeding, but there are a few banded at their natal colony that return to a different Montana colony.
If you’ve seen a pelican with an unusual looking horn or bump on the top of its bill, that means it’s preparing to breed. The adult pelicans develop these projections, called bill plates, in advance of breeding season. Males use different tactics to attract females during mating season. Some males have colorful feathers while others have ability to change the color of the pouch, neck, legs and bill into bright colors during courtship. The leg color eventually fades, the head darkens, and the plumes and horn are lost. The period from courtship flights to the onset of egg-laying is about a week.
Montana Pelicans arrive in April. Breeding colonies nest in the eastern prairie regions on islands or peninsulas of low topographic relief at lakes and reservoirs. Egg-laying and incubation occur during late April through May in isolated areas. Cover is often minimal, with nests mostly or completely exposed. In the main sub-colony at Medicine Lake, nests are often under chokecherry bushes. Both males and females are in charge of the building of the nests that are usually located under trees near the water. Nests are built using feathers, leaves and sticks. At Medicine Lake, the mean number of young produced per nesting pair since 1990 is 0.51.
Pelicans typically lay two eggs with each egg laid 2 to 3 days apart. Eggs are incubated by both parents for 32 to 35 days and hatched in late May and June. The first chick born is always larger and usually only one survives. Both adults incubate the eggs and tend the young. Unlike other birds which incubate their eggs under their breast, the Pelican incubates their eggs under their webbed feet.
Chicks are born tiny and featherless, with orange bodies and grayish bills and pouches. Mortality of eggs and chicks generally is high, and adults generally do not renest following loss of the first clutch.
After two or three weeks, chicks are big enough to leave the nest, forming groups called crèches with other young pelicans. They aren’t old enough to forage on their own and remain in the colonies until mid-August. The parents will forage and return to the crèche with food, searching among the young pelicans for their hatchlings.
Each hatchling needs about 150 pounds of food provided for them until they are old enough to feed themselves, Pelican chicks grow quickly and are generally ready to join the flock after 12 weeks.
Pelicans reach sexual maturity around 3 years of age and may live 25 years or more. Pelicans pair up with a mate every breeding season and stay with that mate for the season. The following breeding season they may or may not be with the same mate. The oldest bird recovered from a Montana colony was 20 years of age.
Did you think white pelicans have all-white feathers? If you see these fabulous birds on the water, you may think they have only white feathers, but in flight they reveal a surprise. When pelicans spread their wings, they show off their all-black feathers at the ends and tips of their wings. In the water or even while standing, they look all white, save for their orange webbed feet and their yellowish-orange bills.
In recent years, the size of Montana colonies has been 500-4000 pairs and is increasing. Nesting islands at Montana colonies often are shared by other species, including Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Common Tern, California Gull, and Ring-billed Gull.
Inspection of the prey remains of the white pelicans at the Medicine Lake colony show a diet of Common Carp, Fathead Minnow suckers, Northern Pike, Goldeye sturgeon and adult and larval Tiger Salamanders. Food observed being consumed at the Canyon Ferry and Arod/”Eyraud” colonies was primarily non-game fish including suckers, carp, and bullheads.
Pelicans have been known to fly up to 190 miles from a breeding colony to a feeding site and prefer to forage in shallow water. Breeding adults are estimated to eat about 20 to 40% of their body mass in prey per day.
A pelican’s pouch is mainly used for feeding, but it can be also used as a cooling “device”. During the warm days, pelican will swing its pouch to cool itself. Pelicans will take large amount of water along with fish. Before swallowing the fish, pelicans move heads forward to remove excess water. Pelicans can eat 4 pounds of fish per day.
The earliest pelican fossil on record is a 30-million-year-old skull that was found in the Oligocene deposits of France. Paleontologists have also uncovered younger material from places like Germany, India, Kenya, Peru, Australia, and North Carolina. Today, there are eight living species.
Water birds tend to have four toes on each foot along with some degree of webbing. In geese and ducks, the webbing is only present between the three toes that point forward. Pelicans have totipalmate feet, which means that on each foot, there’s webbing that connects all four toes
Pelicans technically have nasal openings. However, the nostrils are sealed off, buried under the beak’s horny sheath. The hidden nostrils house special glands which remove excess salt from the blood stream. Because their nostrils are walled-off, pelicans predominantly breathe through their mouths.
American white pelicans are often seen in the company of double-crested cormorants. They often forage for fish together, although they don’t usually eat the same fish and they don’t hunt at the same depths of the water. Cormorants will even build their nests and raise their young within pelican colonies.
Get three or more pelican friends together and you’ve got a pod of pelicans. Or a brief. Or a pouch. Or a scoop. Or a squadron. Why do pelicans carry the fish they catch in their bills? Because they haven’t got any pockets!