Pelican bird description for kids. Pelicans (lat. Relaxus). Appearance and morphology

Even small children know a bird with such an unusual appearance. Only the pelican has such an original beak with a leather bag. Aristotle wrote about him in his work "History of Animals". Shakespeare and Dante called the pelican the renewer of life.

There are legends about this bird. One of them says that the pelican pierced its chest with a powerful beak and fed the dying chicks with blood. In this article we will tell you where the pelican lives, on which mainland it is impossible to meet these birds, about what differences there are between different species.

History of unusual birds

According to scientists, the ancestors of pelicans appeared on our planet about 50 million years ago. Examining the fossilized remains of onocrotals, biologists came to the conclusion that these birds were much larger than the current pelicans. Their wingspan exceeded five meters, and their weight reached forty kilograms. And although the ancient birds looked more impressive than their descendants, even today pelicans stand out against the background of their close relatives - gannets, cormorants, frigatebirds, phaetons.

Description of pelicans

On average, the weight of a bird does not exceed fourteen kilograms. characteristic feature The pelican has a beak that is five times as long as its head. The leather bag located under the beak holds up to 15 liters of water. This unusual adaptation helps pelicans catch fish.

The plumage of these birds does not adhere tightly to the skin, so air collects between the feathers, which helps to reduce the density of their body. On the ground, pelicans move freely, although they look somewhat awkward. They eat only fish. They nest in colonies.

In the Pelican family, there is only one genus (Pelecanus), which consists of eight species. It is interesting to watch these majestic birds during fishing. The bird is instantly transformed. At a height of three to ten meters above the water, she folds her wings and, opening her powerful beak, quickly rushes into the water.

Pelicans are very beautiful in flight. The rhythm of the long wedge is set by the head bird. The whole flock supports her.

Where do pelicans of different species live? African pelican

We will start our acquaintance with a unique bird. The nesting colonies of the African pelican are not located in the reeds or on the ground, like other pelicans, but on trees, most often they are sheltered by baobabs. Often their nests are adjacent to the nests of marabou or other heron birds. This pelican is slightly smaller than other species.

The plumage is mostly white, with some dark patches. During the mating season, a delicate pink hue appears on the back. In what country and where do pelicans of this species live? The bird is widespread in Africa, south of 16 ° N. sh. Often nests in the territories of African cities, most often in northern Nigeria.

American white pelican

The peculiarity of this species is the presence of a horny crest on the upper beak, which appears during the mating season. In the northern regions North America where pelicans of this species live, nesting colonies often number up to five thousand. Birds settle along the banks of rivers and lakes, on the sea coasts. In captivity, this species lives for more than thirty years.

Pelican brown

This species differs from other pelicans in many respects. This is a true sea bird, which managed to master an unusual, original even for pelicans, way of catching fish. The brown pelican rushes into the water for prey from a height of up to 20 meters and at the same time plunges to a depth of up to 2.5 meters. In addition, this is the only pelican that is painted in dark colors. Most often nests on the ground, much less often develops cliffs, and very rarely builds nests in shrubs and low trees.

The brown pelican is by far the most numerous species in its family among all pelicans. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South and North America, the Galapagos Islands are places where pelicans live in nature. Birds prefer to settle on islands and shallow coastal waters.

peruvian pelican

Until recently, it was considered a subspecies of the brown pelican. It was recognized as a separate species only in 2007. On the Pacific coast of Chile and Peru, where these pelicans live outside the nesting period, they meet representatives of brown birds in one area - near Santa Clara Island. Crossings between the species have not yet been recorded.

Pelican pink

A large waterfowl with a body length of 175 cm, a wingspan of 360 cm, and a weight of up to 13 kg. The tail is straight, up to 23 cm long, consists of 24 tail feathers. The plumage is white, with a delicate pink tint, quite rare. The beak is flattened, long and slightly curved down. The ring around the eyes, the base of the lower jaw, the frenulum and the forehead are not feathered. On the head there is a crest of elongated feathers.

Where does the pink pelican live? Its range covers territories from the south of Western Europe and West Africa to South and Central Asia. In the south of the European part of the Russian Federation, it settles on sea coasts and large fresh water bodies. The total number of pink pelicans is low, so the species is listed in the International Red Book.

Pelican curly

These are large birds, the wingspan of which reaches two meters, the wing length for males is 72-80 centimeters, for females - 69-72 centimeters. Weight - from nine to thirteen kilograms. A feature of this species is the presence of twisted and elongated "curly" feathers on the upper part of the neck and head, which gave the name to the species. The flight feathers have dark shafts. Like the pink pelican, the curly one has non-feathered areas on the head, but the forehead is feathered, only in the center it is separated by a bare furrow.

The Dalmatian Pelican is much more widely distributed than the pink one, and the species is more numerous. From Greece and Macedonia in the east to South China and Mongolia, in the south to the shores of the Persian Gulf, the territories where curly pelicans live. Birds winter in small colonies on the shores of the Caspian Sea (southern), much more individuals survive the winter in the lower reaches of the Nile, in Pakistan, Iran, in the northwestern regions of India, in southern China.

Pelican spectacled

Australia is the mainland where the spectacled pelican lives. It got its name because of the unfeathered rings around the eyes. In spectacled, this place is not connected to the near-beak, as in other pelicans, but is separated by a strip of plumage. Flight, tail and partially covering wings are black. It prefers to settle in sandy lagoons, on islands and lakes of almost the entire continent.

gray pelican

A medium sized bird with a grayish chest and tail. She has characteristic gray spots on her beak during the mating season. The body length of representatives of this species is on average about 1.3 m. Males are noticeably larger than females. The beak reaches a length of 35.5 cm. The weight of the birds is no more than five kilograms.

The plumage of the upper side of the body and the neck are gray, the underparts are gray-white, the undertail has brownish speckles. The legs may be dark brown or black. The beak is colored pink or yellow-orange, the bag under the beak is reddish. The wings are gray, dark brown or black at the tops. The gray pelican lives in South and Southeast Asia, nests in territories from India to Indonesia, on shallow lakes.

Now you know where pelicans live different types. In fact, they inhabit all continents with the exception of Antarctica.

Pelicans live in almost all warm latitudes of all continents. The main habitat is considered to be areas located near the seas and oceans. They have a very strange beak shape, which many people think is that this item gives the bird excessive inconvenience. However, mother nature is smart, and this beak is a receptacle for caught fish, working on the principle of a fishing net, which does not affect flight and swimming qualities in any way. Pelicans live in flocks, where the dominance of individual individuals is expressed.

The main source of food for pelicans is the sea or ocean. They feed on fish, crabs and jellyfish. “Fishing” is a very interesting activity for these birds. Moreover, the manner of fishing for food is distinctive and depends on belonging to a particular species.

Some species prefer collective "fishing". Lined up, they loudly flap their wings against the water, driving the fish into shallow water, where it becomes easily accessible. Sometimes pelicans have to dive deep into the sea for prey. They are excellent swimmers and divers.

Pelicans nest in trees or shrubs, build large nests for themselves using reeds, small twigs and dry foliage.
Pelicans feed their chicks with overcooked fish. To do this, parents have to burp the contents of the stomach back into the beak pouch. From there, the chicks get food already in the semi-digested form.

A relative of the pink pelican, the Australian pelican reaches 188 cm in length.

The curly pelican is the largest species not only among relatives of closely related species. This bird is barely inferior to large swans

The Dalmatian Pelican and the Wandering Albatross have the largest wingspan, over 350 cm.

There are the following types of pelicans:

Curly Pelican (Pelecanus Crisp)
pink pelican, woman pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus)
Australian Pelican (Pelecanus Conspicillatus)
Indian Pelican (Pelecanus philippensis)
Lesser Pelican (Pelecanus rufescens)
dzioborogi Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)
Brown Pelican (Pelecanus western)
Chilean Pelican (Pelecanus thagus) - isolated from western species

Curly Pelican

Its wingspan reaches 350 cm.
The largest representatives of this species reach 183 cm in length.
Under the skin, they have special "airbags" that allow them to easily float on the surface of the water.
The flight speed of the pelican is over 50 km/h.
The elastic beak bag can be stretched to the point where it can easily hold up to 13 liters of water or food.

* Length: 160-183cm (188cm Australian Pelican)
* Wingspan: 290-351cm
* Weight: 11-15kg
* Beak length: 36-45cm (Australian pelican 50cm)
* Average life expectancy: 25 years

Pelicans- lat. Pelecanus, belong to the pelican family, representatives of the bird class. The distant ancestors of pelicans appeared on Earth about 100 million years ago. Since ancient times, the pelican has aroused the keen interest of man, and some peoples even revere it as a sacred bird.

Habitat and reproduction

The pelican is a migratory bird that lives in the southern part of Europe, along the shores of the Black Sea, in the thickets of rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea, on the Aral Sea, and also in Africa. Birds nesting in Europe and North Africa, fly away to winter in the southern and central regions of Africa, while Asian pelicans winter in India. For nesting, birds choose hard-to-reach shores densely overgrown with reeds, or islands and sandy spits on lakes. Outside the nesting season, pelicans live along the shores of lakes or swamps, in lagoons, river estuaries and coastal waters of the seas, successfully hunting in brackish and salty waters.

Pelican breeding season lasts from mid-April to mid-September. The birds are looking for a mate different ways. Outside the nesting colony, the female approaches a group of current males and chooses a mate. Then the couple steps aside, and the male tries to mate with his mate. In nesting areas, the mating ritual of pelicans looks different. This time, the males approach groups of females and begin to lek, pacing in front of them with a low mutter, and sometimes gather in a circle and rub their beaks. At first, the females keep to themselves, but soon the cavaliers approach the females singly or in groups, and they choose their partners. Then the couple flies to the water, where the boyfriend swims around his chosen one. Coming to land, the male puffs up his feathers, spreads his wings and continues to court his mate. Having found a place for a nest, the female rakes the ground with her beak, sits down in a hole and admits a partner to her person.

After mating, the male begins to collect in his beak construction material and brings it to his wife, and she builds a nest out of it. Having completed the construction, the female lays one egg, a month later another one, after which both parents incubate the clutch for 29-36 days. With an interval of one month, naked chicks are born. At first, they need constant heating, but soon they become overgrown with dark fluff. Parents alternately feed their babies with regurgitated liquid food, and two-week-old chicks take out small fish by thrusting their beak into the parent's throat pouch. At 3 weeks old, juveniles gather in the "nursery" under the supervision of several adult birds, while the rest are engaged in hunting. By the end of the second month of life, young pelicans already know how to swim and fish, and at 65-70 days they become winged and gain independence. Pelican reaches sexual maturity at the age of 3-4 years.

Lifestyle

Pelicans live in large flocks that can number from 5 to 10 thousand birds. There is no hierarchy in the flock, but life in such a large company provides the birds with greater security. Having gathered in a close-knit gang, it is always easier to drive away the aggressor, besides, vigilant watchmen can at any time warn relatives about the approaching threat. Pelicans treat each other very peacefully and show almost no hostility; only in very rare cases do fights break out over prey or building material for the nest. Having started a duel, opponents painfully beat each other with hooked beaks. The pink pelican is one of the most massive flying birds on the planet. It can take off only from a running start, often and noisily beating the air with its wings, but in flight the flapping of huge wings becomes measured and powerful. Pelican often resorts to soaring, skillfully using ascending air currents. On a long journey, pelicans usually fly in a wedge, and since the leader has the hardest time of all, the birds replace each other from time to time. Outside of the nesting season, pelicans settle near their fishing grounds, finding a place in coastal reeds for daytime rest and lodging for the night. Sometimes pelicans settle down to rest on windswept islets and sandbars with good overview, and only occasionally perch on tree branches. They serve food different kinds fish are primarily a schooling trifle. Most often, birds hunt in shallow water in groups of 6-20 individuals. Having settled in a semicircle, the pelicans swim forward in a dense formation, drive the fish flock to the shore and, plunging their heads into the water, catch their prey with nets of throat bags. The pelican throws up the caught fish in the air to turn it head first, and then swallows it. Sometimes pelicans hunt alone.

Pelican Guard

The pink pelican is protected by law, but the draining of swamps, water pollution and mowing serious threat its existence, depriving it of its usual nesting sites. The greatest danger threatens the European curly pelican. If millions of these birds lived on the continent in the 19th century, no more than 670-1300 pairs have survived to this day.

Pelican Features

The pink pelican's skin throat pouch, densely permeated with capillaries, holds 12 liters. The bird often uses it for thermoregulation: in extreme heat it opens its beak and vigorously moves its head from side to side. In such a simple way, the blood flowing in the walls of the bag is cooled.

Pelican is able to swallow pretty big fish, for example, carp weighing up to 2 kg. An adult pelican needs 900-1200 g of food daily, and during the period of feeding chicks, it can carry up to 4 kg of fish in its throat bag.

In the distant past, there was a belief that pelican chicks eat the insides of their parents. Since then, the pelican has become a symbol of parental self-denial, although it has long been known that this is just a beautiful legend.

Class - birds (aves)
Order - pelicans (pelecaniformes)
Family - pelicans (pelecanidae)
Genus - pelicans (pelecanus)

Pelicans are one of the largest waterfowl. Despite their impressive size, these birds are capable of flying to a height of up to three kilometers. Although they are classified as exotic and the geography of their residence is very wide, they can be found on all continents of the globe in tropical and subtropical zones, except for Antarctica.

Pelican (pink-backed species) and two herons in Tanzania.
Pelican and heron in Tanzania.

Appearance

The physique of pelicans is massive and rather awkward - it is long, varies from 1.3 m to 1.8 m, and the weight, depending on the species, is from 7 to 14 kg. They have a long beak, neck and wings, and their legs are very short. It is worth looking at a photo of a pelican and all attention is immediately riveted to the throat pouch located on the underside of the beak. It is a stretchable leather bag, which is the main assistant in catching fish, the beak of birds is also unusual - very powerful and heavy with a hook at the end, it can reach more than 45 cm in length.

The feathers of pelicans do not fit tightly to the body, so they are prone to getting wet quickly, because of this, pelicans often “squeeze” water out of them with their beak with their beak. The color is usually white or white-gray, with a pink tint. During the mating season, the beak and other parts of the head without feathers are colored brightly.

Sexual dimorphism in birds is weakly expressed - females are slightly smaller in size than males and are dimmer than males.

Australian pelican on the water.

Nutrition and behavior

Pelicans are birds of prey, they feed mainly on fish, less often they catch frogs, toads, crustaceans, small turtles. On a day, these birds need to feed about a kilogram of fish.

They snatch the fish out of the water, lowering their heads into the pond. After the bird has caught the fish, it strains water from the five-liter throat bag with its beak and swallows the prey. They can also hunt collectively - they begin to flap their wings in the water and with their beaks knock out frightened fish in shallow water. Quite often, gulls and cormorants take part in such a hunt.

If you take a photo of pelicans on land, it will immediately become clear that they are very clumsy on the ground, but as soon as they take off, and they do it without a run, they fly surprisingly easily and quickly, during the flight they can plan on outstretched wings.

Curly pelican with a wide open beak.
An American white pelican caught a catfish.

reproduction

Birds become ready for breeding at the age of three years. Almost all species of pelicans form pairs for only one season. Nests are built on the ground, in the creases of reeds, on large trees, rocks. The female builds the nest, and the male searches for material. Quite often, several pairs of pelicans build a common nest.

Usually in the clutch there are up to three yellow or bluish eggs with a rough shell. The female incubates the eggs, the male replaces her only when the female goes for food. After 30 - 42, newborn pelican chicks are born. Chicks are born completely naked and blind, fluff appears only by the tenth day. Both parents are responsible for feeding - they regurgitate partially digested food from the stomach and feed the chicks directly from the beak. Birds become on the wing quite late - at 70 - 75 days. Among the chicks, there is high food competition, as a rule, only one chick survives.

American brown pelican in a nest with a cub.

Pelican species

The pelican family includes 8 species of birds.

Australian pelican - lives in Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. Despite the small size of 4-7 kg, a bird can eat up to 8 kg of food per day. An interesting fact is that the male during the mating season can “care” for the female for up to 8 months until she gives her consent.

Australian pelican on the pier.

Australian pelican in flight.
Australian pelican showing the size of the bag.
A flock of Australian pelicans on the coast.
Pair of Australian Pelicans on the water.
Australian pelicans on the shore.

Curly pelican - these pelicans are migratory birds, they usually settle near hard-to-reach lakes, in the lower reaches and deltas of rivers with a lot of vegetation. The people call the bird "Baba-bird". Couples of this species remain faithful to each other all their lives.

A pair of Dalmatian Pelicans on the water at Colchester Zoo, Essex, Britain.
Curly Pelican with a caught fish in its beak, Herberstein Zoo, Austria.

Curly pelican in flight.




Curly pelican catches fish on the fly.
Curly pelican on the water.

American white pelican - these birds can be found in Canada and the United States. Another name for these birds is "Rhinoceros Pelican", because of the outgrowth in the middle of the mandible, which appears in them only in the mating season.

American white pelican caught a big fish.
American white pelican in flight over water.
American white pelican in the sky.

American brown pelican - representatives of this species are the smallest pelicans, their weight is about 4.5 kg, and the body length is not more than 137 cm. The image of this bird adorns the flag of American Louisiana and the coat of arms of Barbados.

American brown pelican in flight.
American brown pelican on the water.
An American brown pelican plays with a caught fish.
American brown pelican in attack flight

Pink pelican - the weight of the bird can reach 15 kg. In adult birds, the plumage has a white-pink hue, especially bright on the abdomen during the mating season, the colors become brighter. These birds are listed in the Red Book as an endangered species.

A flock of pink pelicans in Namibia.

The gray pelican is a rare member of the pelicon family. Another name is "Philippine pelicans", although you can no longer meet birds on these islands, they live in the south and southeast of Asia. A feature of this species is that they build nests only in large trees.

Gray Pelicans nest on an artificial platform in Uppalapada, Andhra Pradesh.

Pink-backed pelican - these birds are very similar to pink pelicans, however, they are slightly smaller in size and during the mating season they have a pink-red hue on their back, besides, their head is covered with a lot of curls.

The throat pouch of a pink-backed pelican with its beak raised.
The throat pouch of a pink-backed pelican with its beak down.

Pelecanus thagus - for a long time these birds belonged to the Brown Pelicans, and only recently were assigned to separate species. They nest only on the rocky coast, unlike other species, they do not build nests on trees.

Pelican Pelecanus thagus.

Almost everyone has heard about this amazing bird. It belongs to the pelican family and has several species. Pelicans are common in tropical and temperate zones on almost all continents.

In our country, there are two types of these birds: pink and curly pelican.

Pelican: appearance, habitat

This is a very large migratory bird, its length can reach two meters, and its wingspan is up to three meters.

They are - the largest among waterfowl belonging to the detachment of copepods. The main habitat is the territories located on the coast of the seas and oceans.

They settle in trees, building rather large nests, using reeds, small branches and dry foliage for their construction.

All naturally occurring species of pelicans are several different among themselves, and it depends on the environment. They mostly have white feathers.

These birds differ from others in some features:

Main diet The food for this waterfowl is the fish that it catches in shallow water, as it cannot dive. Despite the fact that on land it looks very awkward, the pelican keeps well on the surface of the water, as it has an air-bubble layer under the skin.

The lifestyle of pelicans and their diet

As mentioned above, they mainly live on the banks of large reservoirs, eating fish, crabs, and jellyfish. fish mostly mined in shallow water, driving it there with the help of wings, with which they flap on the surface of the water.

Some species prefer to forage together with other bird species, gulls, cormorants, as well as in the community of other pelicans. The leather bag in which they put the fish can also be used to collect twigs during nest building.

Despite their unusual and strange appearance, it is very peaceful birds. They prefer to live in packs, which can number up to several thousand individuals. As such, there is no leader in the pack, and, living in a large friendly pack, they provide themselves safety. Vigilant observers inform the entire flock of the approaching danger, and she is ready to scare or drive away the culprit of the calm.

Pelicans rarely have conflicts among themselves, which end in duels with beaks. Although the bird is a little clumsy on land, it feels great in the air, using air currents when flying. During long-distance flights, it is especially difficult for the leader, who sets the pace of the flight, so they constantly replace each other.

To hatch offspring, pairs are formed only for one season, mainly there are two or three eggs in the clutch, which the female incubates for about one and a half months.

The female pelican is engaged in the construction of the nest, the males are engaged in the preparation of material for construction, it happens that pelicans build common nests for several pairs.

Mortality among young animals is very high, since they emerge from eggs blind and naked, besides, it also depends on weather conditions, attack by predators, starvation and other reasons.

Both parents feed the chicks with digested food, which they regurgitate from the stomach into the beak. After two weeks, the young begin to fledge, but for another two long months, until they take to the wing, the parents will carefully care for and feed them. The life expectancy of these birds depends on many factors, but basically it lasts about twenty years.

Varieties of pelicans

There are other varieties of pelicans: Australian, Californian and others.

Population size

Gradually the number of this amazing bird shrinking, and this is due to the use of pesticides, which negatively affected the population of these birds. Some species are listed in the Red Book.

In a number of countries, they are trying to breed them in captivity, but like all gregarious birds, they breed poorly, although they live to be almost twenty years old.

The pelican can be found in fairy tales and legends, its image is used in some countries in heraldry, mythology, and it is also mentioned in some religions.