Pelicans are large birds with enormous, pouched bills

Pelicans are large birds with enormous, pouched bills. The smallest is the Brown Pelican (P. occidentalis), small individuals of which can be as little as 2.75 kg (6 lb), 106 cm (42 in) long and can have a wingspan of as little as 1.83 m (6 ft). The largest is believed to be the Dalmatian Pelican (P. crispus), at up to 15 kg (33 lb), 183 cm (72 in) long, with a maximum wingspan of nearly 3.5 m (11.5 ft). The Australian Pelican has the longest bill of any bird[1].

A pelican is any of several very large water birds with a distinctive pouch under the beak belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae.

Along with the darters, cormorants, gannets, boobies, frigatebirds, and tropicbirds, pelicans make up the order Pelecaniformes. Modern pelicans are found on all continents except Antarctica.

Pelicans are large birds with enormous, pouched bills. The smallest is the Brown Pelican (P. occidentalis), small individuals of which can be as little as 2.75 kg (6 lb), 106 cm (42 in) long and can have a wingspan of as little as 1.83 m (6 ft). The largest is believed to be the Dalmatian Pelican (P. crispus), at up to 15 kg (33 lb), 183 cm (72 in) long, with a maximum wingspan of nearly 3.5 m (11.5 ft). The Australian Pelican has the longest bill.

The regular diet of a Pelican usually consists of fish, but they also eat amphibians, crustaceans and on some occasions, smaller birds.[2]

HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/" \l "cite_note-2" \o "" [3] They often catch fish by expanding the throat pouch. Then they must drain the pouch above the surface before they can swallow. This operation takes up to a minute, during which time other seabirds are particularly likely to steal the fish. Pelicans in their turn sometimes pirate prey from other seabirds.

Australian pelicans mostly feed in groups, cooperating to herd and enclose schools of fish, then swoop down on their trapped prey. The pelicans are helped in this endeavor by their sensitive bills (for locating prey), hooked upper mandible (for snagging slippery fish), and characteristic expanding bill pouch (for netting and short-term storage). Flocks of nearly 2000 birds have been sighted working together to feed. Australian pelicans are voracious, consuming up to 9 kilograms of food per day, and they are not picky eaters. In addition to small fish, they will eat crustaceans, tadpoles, turtles, ducklings and sea gulls. They have even been known to be so brash as to follow humans into their homes, seeking food.

Pelicans are gregarious and nest colonially. The ground-nesting (white) species have a complex communal courtship involving a group of males chasing a single female in the air, on land, or in the water while pointing, gaping, and thrusting their bills at each other. They can finish the process in a day. The tree-nesting species have a simpler process in which perched males advertise for females.

The Dalmatian Pelican and the Spot-billed Pelican are the rarest species, with the population of the former estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000[4] and that of the latter at 13,000 to 18,000.[5] The most common is believed to be the Australian Pelican (though some estimates have placed the White Pelican at a higher population

Australian Pelican

Habitat: Common throughout Australia, found at coastal mudflats, estuaries and rivers also found inland at lakes dams and lagoons. Feeds on fish and crustacean. Notes: White head with black wings often seen soaring a great heights. Breeds when conditions are good.

Any area with a large body of standing water is a potential pelican habitat. Though normally associated with the coast, the Australian pelican can also be seen inland at times of high rainfall, particularly near freshwater, estuarine and marine wetlands and waterways including lakes, swamps, rivers, coastal islands and shores.The Brown Pelican is a coastal bird that is rarely found away from the sea. The birds on the Pacific Coast nest on islands off the coasts of southern California and Mexico. After the breeding season, they move north along the coast, frequenting shallow marine areas such as bays, offshore islands, spits, breakwaters, and open sandy beaches.