Pretty Pelicans

Hello readers, hope you all enjoyed the time with Bird no. 1 I mean our national bird peacock and see now yet another Sunday is here knocking the door to deliver one more unique topic, with due respect to readers introducing beautiful and one of the best hunting bird. So let's go to explore the world of Pretty Pelicans

Do you know me?

Exactly do we know anything about Pelicans? I am sure the answer will be no, so let me give you the introduction of this wonderful bird

Pelicans are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. A long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped up contents before swallowing characterize them

Pelican is an amazing bird that can be found on all continents except on Antarctica. There are eight species of pelicans. These birds are usually located in warm regions, near rivers, estuaries, and lakes

Pelicans are known for their breeding colonies composed of hundreds of pelicans; they feed principally on fish, catching them at or near the water surface. They are gregarious birds, traveling in flocks, hunting cooperatively

Pelicans eat fish mainly. Other than that, they can also eat turtles, crustaceans, and tadpoles. Very hungry pelicans will even attack and eat seagulls

After knowing basic details, you would be eager to know the uniqueness of this bird hence bringing you interesting and unheard details in the next section

Incomparable Character

Pelicans are awesome. They have interesting feet, spectacular hunting habits, and throat pouches that can trap a lot more than fish. Here are a few things you might not have known about these eccentric birds

The Pelican family is at least 30 million years old; 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 and you can find some combination of them dwelling on every continent except Antarctica

Pelican has the largest bill of all birds. It can reach 18 inches in length. Underneath the bill, pelicans have a throat pouch that can hold 3 gallons of water. His beak can hold more than his belly can, they can hold in his beak enough food for a week

Pelicans are heavy birds, but thanks to air sacs in their bones floating is not a problem. They can fly to the height of 10,000 feet using the warm wind currents

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 and catch it by accelerating toward it with great accuracy

Unique toes of Pelicans, water birds tend to have four toes on each foot along with some degree of webbing. But in geese and ducks, the webbing is only present between the three toes that point forward but Pelican's totipalmate feet, which means that on each foot, there’s webbing that connects all four toes

I am sure you will be thrilled by knowing such incomparable character of this Pretty bird, now take a tour of DSLR section to see how this bird looks like as well

Conservation status

Pelicans are threatened by water pollution, chemical pollution and major ecological catastrophes such as oil spills. Bycatch is another reason why the number of pelicans is decreasing: while diving for fish, pelicans can end up in fishing nets