The brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. It is found on the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to the mouth of the Amazon River, and along the Pacific Coast from British Columbia to Peru, including the Galapagos Islands. The nominate subspecies in its breeding plumage has a white head with a yellowish wash on the crown. The nape and neck are dark maroon–brown. The upper sides of the neck have white lines along the base of the gular pouch, and the lower fore neck has a pale yellowish patch. The male and female are similar, but the female is slightly smaller. The nonbreeding adult has a white head and neck. The pink skin around the eyes becomes dull and gray in the nonbreeding season. It lacks any red hue, and the pouch is strongly olivaceous ochre-tinged and the legs are olivaceous gray to blackish-gray.
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, vegetated land among sand dunes, thickets of shrubs and trees, and mangroves. Females lay two or three oval, chalky white eggs. Incubation takes 28 to 30 days with both sexes sharing duties. The newly hatched chicks are pink, turning gray or black within 4 to 14 days. About 63 days are needed for chicks to fledge. Six to 9 weeks after hatching, the juveniles leave the nest, and gather into small groups known as pods.
The brown pelican is the national bird of Saint Martin, Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the official state bird of Louisiana, appearing on the flag, seal, or coat of arms of each. It has been rated as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It was listed under the United States Endangered Species Act from 1970 to 2009, as pesticides such as dieldrin and DDT threatened its future in the Southeastern United States and California. In 1972, the use of DDT was banned in Florida, followed by the rest of the United States. Since then, the brown pelican's population has increased. In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt set aside the first National Wildlife Refuge, Florida's Pelican Island, to protect the species from hunters.
Taxonomy The brown pelican was described by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in the 1766 12th edition of his Systema Naturae, where it was given the binomial name of Pelecanus occidentalis. It belongs to the New World clade of the genus Pelecanus.
The brown pelican is part of a clade that includes the Peruvian pelican (P. thagus) and American white pelican (P. erythrorhynchos); brown and Peruvian pelicans are sister taxa, with American white pelican a more distant relative. The Peruvian pelican was previously considered a subspecies of the brown pelican, but is now considered a separate species on the basis of its much greater size (around double the weight of the brown pelican), differences in bill color and plumage, and a lack of evidence of hybridization between the forms where their ranges approach and overlap. (In captivity, the brown pelican is known to have hybridized with both the American white pelican and the more distantly related great white pelican.)
In 1932, James L. Peters divided Pelecanus into three subgenera, placing brown pelican (including Peruvian pelican) in a monospecific Leptopelicanus, American white pelican in a monospecific Cyrtopelicanus, and all the rest in the subgenus Pelecanus, a treatment which was also followed by Jean Dorst and Raoul J. Mougin in 1979. Andrew Elliott in 1992, and Joseph B. Nelson in 2005, considered the deepest division among pelicans to lie between brown (plus Peruvian) pelican on the one hand, and the white-plumaged pelicans on the other (among which the large ground-nesting American white, Australian, great white, and Dalmatian pelicans were thought to form a clade, and the smaller tree-nesting pink-backed and spot-billed pelicans were likewise considered sister taxa). In 1993, Paul Johnsgard hypothesized that the Americas were colonized relatively late in pelican evolution, with the family originating in Africa or South Asia; however, he later supported the prevailing view that brown (with Peruvian) was the most divergent pelican (and considered American white and great white pelicans to be close relatives, implying two independent dispersals of pelicans into the Americas, with that of the ancestor of brown and Peruvian pelicans occurring early on). Sibley and Ahlquist's DNA-DNA hybridization studies and UPGMA tree published in 1990 supported brown pelican as sister to a clade comprising all the white-plumaged pelicans analyzed, including American white pelican (although the relationships among the latter group differed).
With better genetic data and more modern methods, a new phylogenetic hypothesis of pelican relationships has arisen, which contrasts with the traditional view of brown and Peruvian being the most divergent pelicans based on their distinctive plumage and behavior (and early molecular data). Rather than the brown-plumaged pelicans and white-plumaged pelicans forming two reciprocally monophyletic groups, the American white pelican is sister to brown and Peruvian pelicans, the three together forming an exclusively New World pelican clade. (Among the other pelicans, pink-backed, Dalmatian, and spot-billed pelicans are close relatives, together sister to Australian pelican. Great white pelican has no particularly close relatives; while it may be sister to the previous four, this relationship had low statistical support.)
Subspecies Five subspecies of the brown pelican are recognized. At least some of these subspecies are genetically distinct despite similar phenotypes. The subspecies differ from one another in size, coloration of the throat pouch (among other bare parts) in breeding condition, and/or certain breeding plumage details, as well as geographic range. Image Subspecies Distribution P. o. californicus (Ridgway, 1884) This subspecies breeds on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California, and south to Jalisco. Its non-breeding range extends north along the Pacific coast to British Columbia, and south to Guatemala. It is rarely found in El Salvador. P. o. carolinensis (Gmelin, 1789) This subspecies breeds in the eastern United States from Maryland south along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Caribbean coasts and south to Honduras and its Pacific coasts, Costa Rica, and Panama. Its non-breeding range is from southern New York to Venezuela. P. o. occidentalis (Linnaeus, 1766) This subspecies breeds in the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Bahamas, and along the Caribbean coast of the West Indies, Colombia, and Venezuela, up to Trinidad and Tobago. P. o. murphyi (Wetmore, 1945) This subspecies is found from western Colombia to Ecuador, and is a non-breeding visitor to northern Peru. P. o. urinator (Wetmore, 1945) This subspecies is found on the Galapagos Islands.
Description
The brown pelican is the smallest of the eight extant pelican species, but is often one of the larger seabirds in their range nonetheless.Daniels, R. C., White, T. W., & Chapman, K. K. (1993). Sea-level rise: destruction of threatened and endangered species habitat in South Carolina. Environmental management, 17(3), 373-385. It measures in length and has a wingspan of . The weight of adults can range from , about half the weight of the other pelicans found in the Americas, the Peruvian and American white pelicans. The average weight in Florida of 47 females was , while that of 56 males was .Schreiber, R. W., Schreiber, E. A., Anderson, D. W., & Bradley, D. W. (1989). Plumages and molts of Brown Pelicans . Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Contributions to Science, (402). Like all pelicans, it has a very long bill, measuring in length.
The nominate subspecies in its breeding plumage has a white head with a yellowish wash on the crown. The nape and neck are dark maroon–brown. The upper sides of the neck have white lines along the base of the gular pouch, and the lower foreneck has a pale yellowish patch. The feathers at the center of the nape are elongated, forming short, deep chestnut crest feathers. It has a silvery gray mantle, scapulars, and upperwing coverts (feathers on the upper side of the wings), with a brownish tinge. The lesser coverts have dark bases, which gives the leading edge of the wing a streaky appearance. The uppertail coverts (feathers above the tail) are silvery white at the center, forming pale streaks. The median (between the greater and the lesser coverts), primary (connected to the distal forelimb), secondary (connected to the ulna), and greater coverts (feathers of the outermost, largest, row of upperwing coverts) are blackish, with the primaries having white shafts and the secondaries having variable silver-gray fringes. The tertials (feathers arising in the brachial region) are silver-gray with a brownish tinge. The underwing has grayish-brown remiges with white shafts to the outer primary feathers. The axillaries and covert feathers are dark, with a broad, silver–gray central area. The tail is dark gray with a variable silvery cast. The lower mandible is blackish, with a greenish-black gular pouch at the bottom for draining water when it scoops out prey. The breast and belly are dark, and the legs and feet black. It has a grayish white bill tinged with brown and intermixed with pale carmine spots. The crest is short and pale reddish-brown in color. The back, rump, and tail are streaked with gray and dark brown, sometimes with a rusty hue. The male and female are similar, but the female is slightly smaller. It is exceptionally buoyant due to the internal air sacks beneath its skin and in its bones. It is as graceful in the air as it is clumsy on land.
The nonbreeding adult has a white head and neck, and the pre-breeding adult has a creamy yellow head. The pink skin around the eyes becomes dull and gray in the non-breeding season. It lacks any red hue, and the pouch is strongly olivaceous ochre tinged and the legs are olivaceous gray to blackish-gray. It has pale blue to yellowish white irides which become brown during the breeding season. During courtship, the bill becomes pinkish red to pale orange, redder at the tip, and the pouch is blackish. Later in the breeding season the bill becomes pale ash-gray over most of the upper jaw and the basal third of the mandible.
The juvenile is similar, but is grayish-brown overall and has paler underparts. The head, neck, and thighs are dusky-brown, and the abdomen is dull white. The plumage of the male is similar to a fully adult female, although the male's head feathers are rather rigid. The tail and flight feathers are browner than those of the adult. It has short, brown upperwing coverts, which are often darker on greater coverts, and dull brownish-gray underwing coverts with a whitish band at the center. The irides are dark brown and the facial skin is bluish. It has a gray bill which is horn-yellow to orange near the tip, with a dark gray to pinkish-gray pouch. It acquires adult plumage at over 3 years of age, when the feathers on the neck become paler, the upperparts become striped, the greater upperwing and median coverts become grayer, and the belly acquires dark spots.
The brown pelican is readily distinguished from the American white pelican by its nonwhite plumage, smaller size, and habit of diving for fish from the air, as opposed to co-operative fishing from the surface. It and the Peruvian pelican are the only true marine pelican species.
The brown pelican produces a wide variety of harsh, grunting sounds, such as a low-pitched hrrraa-hrra, during displays. The adult also rarely emits a low croak, while young frequently squeal.
Distribution and habitat