Let's Talk Pelicans: Everything You Need to Know About Our Brown Pelican

Welcome everyone! Join us as we discuss one of our former patients with the delightful Detta Buch of the Wildlife Orphanage and Rehabilitation Centre (WORC). In this video we get some really wonderful information and insight into Pelicans and their life.

The brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is of the pelican family, Pelecanidae. It is one of three pelican species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving in water. Brown Pelicans are huge, stocky seabirds. They have thin necks and very long bills with a stretchy throat pouch used for capturing fish. Their wings are very long and broad and are often noticeably bowed when the birds are gliding.

The brown pelican mainly feeds on fish, but occasionally eats amphibians, crustaceans, and the eggs and nestlings of birds. It nests in colonies in secluded areas, often on islands (like our Pelican Island), vegetated land among sand dunes, thickets of shrubs and trees, and mangroves.

Brown Pelicans generally have a lifespan of 20-30 years but some have been known to live for up to 43 years old! Menhaden may account for most of its diet, and the anchovy supply is particularly important to the brown pelican's nesting success. Other fish preyed on with some regularity includes pigfish, pinfish, herring, sheepshead, silversides, mullets, sardines, and minnows.

Brown Pelicans feed by plunging into the water, stunning small fish with the impact of their large bodies and scooping them up in their expandable throat pouches. In flight, lines of pelicans glide on their broad wings, often surfing updrafts along wave faces or cliffs. Their wingbeats are slow, deep, and powerful.

Brown Pelicans are protected by the laws of Trinidad and Tobago, under the Conservation of Wildlife Act. Capturing, harming or killing this animal will carry a fine of $5000 or 3 months imprisonment.