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Science

A Pelican Brief
by Anjali Amit

A wonderful bird is the pelican
His beak holds more than his belican.
          Dixon Lanier Merritt (1879-1972)

The poet had it right. The pelican's beak can hold more than its stomach, but not all of what it holds is food. The pouch can carry up to three gallons of water, so every scoop or dive fills it up with fish and water.

Call the pouch the "grocery bag" if you will. How does the pelican fill the bag? It depends on the species. The white pelicans are social fishers. They gather together, four or five at a time, and herd the smaller fish towards shallow water. Then with a great flapping of wings, they scoop the fish into their bills.

Brown pelicans are dive-bombers. They can spot fish from as high as seventy feet above the water. When they see a fish, they pull back their wings and dive with pinpoint accuracy. It was thought that repeated dives would cause blindness. If this were so, then the pelicans would have died out long ago because blind birds cannot fish. Pelicans however, have been around for forty million years and counting. Subcutaneous air sacs throughout the body cushion the dive and prevent injury.

Feeding the Babies

Pelicans are birds, and we know how baby birds are fed. But pelican parents have an easier way. They open their mouths wide, allowing the baby chick to reach in for its fishy meal. It enjoys this feeding so much that parents often have to shake the chick out.

Seagulls feed off the pelican in a similar fashion. They have learned that the pelican opens its mouth to drain the water. This is mealtime. Gulls perch on the pelicans' backs or heads and lean forward to pluck the fish from their pouches.

Masters of Water
All water birds have webbed feet. The difference between species lies in the webbing. For example, ducks and geese have feet in which only the three front toes are connected, and the rear toe is separate. Birds of the pelecaniformes family have totipalmate feet, where all four toes are webbed together.

On land, the large-beaked pelican looks clumsy. But in the water, the totipalmate feet make it a strong swimmer, permitting the pelican to push through the water more effectively. Air sacs help it to float regally high in the water.

Masters of Air

To see a line of pelicans in flight is a magnificent sight. They tuck their beaks upon their necks and flap their large wings in slow, powerful beats, one or two strokes per second. In contrast, hummingbirds beat their wings forty to eighty times per second.

Pelicans rise with the wind. The furcula, a small V-shaped bone, helps to keep the wings steady so they can ride the thermals, rising three to four thousand meters and gliding to feeding areas far away. Pelicans can also fly very low, skimming the surface of the water in a controlled glide. Wings held steady, they sail over the troughs. But when the air is still, they have to run across the water flapping their wings and beating their feet on the surface to build up enough speed for takeoff.

Air Conditioning

On hot days the pelican uses its pouch to cool itself. It opens its beak and flaps the skin from side to side. Air blowing over the moist pouch cools the bird much as panting cools a dog and perspiring keeps us cool. What a smart strategy. The pouch is not only a "grocery bag" but a cooling system as well.

Bibliography:
Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. Pelicans. NY: Clarion Books, 1992.
Savage, Candace. Getting to Know: Nature's Children Pelicans. NY: Grolier, 1985.
Swan, Erin Pembrey. Pelicans, Cormorants and Their Kin. NY: Franklin Watts, 2002.

Interesting Web Sites:
http://montereybay.com/creagrus/pelicans.html
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Brown_Pelican.html
http://whozoo.org/Intro98/stewwarr/stewwarr1.htm

Anjali is a children's book author whose first book, Folk Tales From Rajasthan, was published when she was in college. Upon graduation she "sold her soul to Mammon"-went to work for a bank. She writes fiction, non-fiction, and edits technical documents. Her articles have appeared in various magazines. "Bedtime Stories from Around the World", her second book, was published a few years ago.