Species Spotlight : Brown Pelican
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His mouth can hold more than his belly can ..."
Dixon Lanier Merritt
One of Florida's largest and most engaging birds, the eastern brown pelican lives exclusively in coastal environments and is the only pelican that sky-dives for food. It eats fish, mostly menhaden and other herring, using its pouch like a cast-net to catch them.
Adult pelicans have a grayish-brown body with a darker belly and a white head and neck. During breeding season the hind-neck becomes deep chestnut and a yellow patch appears at the base of the front-neck. Juveniles are a buffy brown above with lighter underparts. The irises of pelican eyes are sky-blue with pink eye-rings.
If the legend is true that when old anglers die, they come back in the form of pelicans, then places in the U.S. have seen a comeback of anglers. In the late 1950s and '60s, the Louisiana population of brown pelicans was extirpated due to the use of DDT and Endrin, toxic pesticides. The bird was listed as a federal endangered species in 1970, two years before DDT was banned, but by 1980 the Louisiana population was re-established using young Florida pelicans. In 1985 the brown pelican was federally delisted but in Florida it is still listed as a species of special concern by the FWC. In 2002 the estimated population of eastern brown pelicans in Florida was 25,600 - 32,000.Egg-laying in eastern brown pelicans generally happens from December through February (through May on Pelican Island). Brown pelicans breed in colonies, mostly on small islands along the Intracoastal Waterway. Pelicans pair up for one year, and both help brood and rear the young, which fledge in about 76 days.
Death during the first year is common -- 70 percent may die from starvation, especially in winter when schools of fish go deeper. Only 2 percent of pelicans live 10 years, although their maximum life span is 20 years.
Where
you can find eastern brown pelicans
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