Animals

A pelican, derived from the Greek word pelekys (meaning “axe” and applied to birds that cut wood with their bills or beaks), is a large water bird with a large throat pouch, belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae.

They are sociable animals and nest on small isolated coastal islands where they are safe from different predators. Females produce two or three yellowish eggs.

The incubation period lasts 30- 42 days. Unfortunately as a rule only one egg survives. A pelican bird picture shows why these birds are quite different than others.

Pelican (genus Pelecanus): one of the seven or eight species of water birds constituting the family Pelecanidae (order Pelecaniformes), distinguished by their large, elastic throat pouches. Pelicans inhabit lakes, rivers, and seacoasts in many parts of the world. With some species reaching a length of 180 cm (70 inches), having a wingspan of 3 m (10 feet), and weighing up to 13 kg (30 pounds), they are among the largest of living birds.

Pelicans eat fish, which they catch by using the extensible throat pouch as a dip-net. The pouch is not used to store the fish, which are swallowed immediately. One species, the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), captures fish by a spectacular plunge from the air, but other species swim in formation, driving small schools of fish into shoal water where they are scooped up by the birds.