What does a pelican eat in its natural environment. Where do pelicans live? In which country? Breeding and caring for chicks

Even a small child will recognize this wonderful bird. Only a pelican has such a peculiar beak. On the entire earthly planet, there are about eight species of pelicans.

They differ slightly in their size and shape. These differences depend on their habitat. Pelican bird quite large. Its length is up to 1.8 meters, and the wingspan is about three meters.

The average weight of a bird can reach up to 14 kilograms. A distinctive feature from all other birds is the pelican's beak.

It is five times the length of its head. No bird has such a capacious and large beak.

In a leather bag located directly under the beak, up to 15 liters of water can fit. This "adaptation" helps these birds to catch fish.

In it they can carry about four of her kilograms. The pelican also differs from all other birds in its pink color of feathers.

All pelicans, without exception, spend most of their existence in the water. They are excellent divers and swimmers. Moving with difficulty on land, they soar into the skies with amazing grace.

Look at the pelican and what a wonderful bird. So clumsy and funny on the ground, he turns into a real beauty of air space, when he rises up and flaps his giant wings, begins a majestic flight.

Pelicans fly in a long wedge. With strength and slowness they flap their wings. The rhythm and flapping of the wings depends on the head bird. Whatever pace she sets, that pace is followed by everyone else.

It was noticed that during the fishing, pelicans lined up in a wedge. Pelican bird photo captivates with its majestic beauty, especially in flight. They are incredibly beautiful and fabulous. This unnatural beak attracts everyone's attention.

Pelican bird description especially interesting when he saw the prey. His transformation is immediate.

They, folding their huge wings in half, being at a height of 3 to 10 meters and opening their beak, quickly go under the water.

This is somewhat reminiscent of a torpedo. After a short time, the pelican emerges with prey in its beak.

The pelican throws water out of its subcutaneous sac back, and swallows its prey with appetite.

Features and habitat of the pelican

There are several signs by which you can easily distinguish a pelican from all other birds:

Large body, with slight clumsiness.

Incredibly large wings, with a span of up to three meters.

Disproportionately short legs, on which the membrane is visible.

Long curved neck.

Large, unusual beak with a bag for prey.

This waterfowl simply needs a nearby reservoir. The shores of rivers, seas and lakes are just what they need. Reservoirs rich in fish are their favorite habitat.

Such an unusual structure of the beak and a too long neck with a bend gives every chance to compare the pelican with prehistoric animals. These are indeed the most ancient birds. They have existed on earth for about 20 million years.

They are migratory birds. They live mainly in the south of Europe, near the Caspian rivers, in Africa and on the Aral Sea.

waterfowl pelican prefer to live in large flocks, in which sometimes there are up to 10,000 birds. But sometimes it happens that one of the couples fights off the total and lives separately.

The nature and lifestyle of the pelican

There is no hierarchy in a flock of pelicans. But, living in such a friendly company, they thus ensure their safety.

The vigilant observers that are among them inform the entire flock of the approaching danger, and then it’s a matter of technology to frighten and drive away the enemy together.

They are very friendly with each other. Only occasionally do pelicans have small conflicts over prey or building material for nests.

Their duel consists in the battle of rivals among themselves with large beaks. This bird needs a good run to take off.

Pelican can easily soar in the air, using air currents to help. When flying over long distances, the most difficult thing is for the leader, who sets the pace of the flight, so they periodically replace each other.

An interesting feature of pelicans is that they prefer to swallow fish only with their heads towards them, for this they, throwing it in the air, try to turn it around.

Where is the pelican bird and how does it displace its prey? This is going pretty interesting. Several dozen pelicans stand in one row and drive the fish with the help of wings into one corner.

We mentioned the beak a little higher, so it is already well known where the pelican bird puts the fish - in its huge beak.

Pelican food

The main food for pelicans is fish. Carp, pike, perch, gallian are their favorite delicacy. In salty reservoirs, they produce for themselves gobies, mullet and toads.

Closer to the sea equators, crabs and shrimps become their delicacy. The daily diet of one adult pelican is about 2 kg of fish.

If for some reason there are not enough fish in the waters, pelicans eat birds. Seagulls and ducks are most often attacked by them.

After the pelican has caught the bird, he keeps it under water for a long time until the bird chokes, then eats it, starting from the head.

Reproduction and life expectancy of a pelican

For nests, these birds choose trees or shrubs. They are built mainly from twigs. Sometimes several pairs settle in one large nest.

They warm it with a large number of twigs, feathers, leaves and droppings. Pelicans, on the other hand, choose the ground for nesting, in dense grassy thickets or reeds.

Sometimes you can see a pelican's nest right on the rocks. In this case, their own feathers serve as building material.

Some people are deluded when they think that Pelicans are the only birds that do not lay eggs. They, like all other birds, lay eggs.

For about a month, the female sits on eggs, usually from 2 to 3. Newborn pelican chicks remain helpless for about two weeks.

Only after the expiration of this time do they fledge, but for another two months the parents completely take care of them. The life expectancy of pelicans is about 20 years.

Pelicans (lat. Pelecanus) are well known even to first-graders. These birds with a huge leather bag in the lower part of the beak delight and fascinate.

The genus of pelicans, by the way, is the only one in the pelican (copepod) family, it has 8 species of birds. Only two of them are found on the territory of Russia - curly and pink. Moreover, both species are migratory, only curly winters in India, Pakistan, Iran and South China, and pink - on the coast of the Persian Gulf.

In general, pelicans like to settle on the shores of shallow lakes and in shallow sea water. The fact is that they feed exclusively on fish, but they just don’t know how to dive for it - their plumage is too loose, it does not fit snugly to the body and gets wet quickly, and the body is too light and does not want to go under water. So they have to splash on the shallows, snatching a fish at the very surface of the water.

Pelicans do this with great pleasure and in a very organized manner: they gather in a semicircle at a depth and begin to flap their wings and beaks with all their might in the water, driving the frightened schooling fish closer to the shore.

Sometimes cormorants, grebes, gulls and terns join them, and then it becomes quite noisy. In shallow water, they will only have to collect prey with their huge beak, the length of which exceeds the size of the head by 5-6 times.

Along with the fish, salt water also enters the mouth, but pelicans do not swallow it. With their heads tilted forward, they pour it back out, then toss the catch into the air so that the fish does a somersault and falls head first into the throat. True, sometimes such a maneuver leaves them hungry - seagulls, which just a minute ago helped to fish side by side, now turn into competitors and are ready to literally snatch prey from their mouths.

Fortunately, they do not always succeed. In addition, while feeding chicks, pelicans do not scatter fish, but immediately carry it to their beloved little ones. Seeing how hungry chicks fumble with their beaks in their parents' mouths, people for some reason decided that birds feed their offspring with their own insides, so pelicans have become a symbol of parental love and selflessness.

Or maybe the appearance of the legend was facilitated by the red plumage on the chest in the wedding dress, which led to believe that birds tear their own chests to feed insatiable children ... Whatever it was, but "pelicans feeding their children" firmly entered European heraldry.

These 7-14-kilogram birds with a body length of 130 to 180 cm and a 47-cm beak with a hook at the end look rather awkward on the ground: a massive body with large wings and thick, short legs with a webbing between the fingers does not allow graceful movement.

But in the sky they look amazing - pelicans are able to deftly use ascending air currents and soar above the ground for a long time. They take off with a running start, during the flight they hold their heads with the letter S, like herons and marabou.

Their pairs are formed for a long time, so there are no too violent mating games. The female finds her last year's nest and sits in it, and her husband discovers it here.

“Bachelors” and “unmarried” get acquainted simply: males approach a group of females and begin to slowly talk, pacing around with a quiet mutter. It is the ladies who choose the gentlemen and, as a sign of consent, rub their beak on the partner's beak.

The nest is built by the expectant mother, the father only carries material for it. There are 2-3 eggs in the clutch, but, unfortunately, according to statistics, only one chick will survive. Incubation lasts a month and a half. After hatching, the chicks fledge at about 75 days of age. Pelicans live for a long time, in captivity they can reach the 20th anniversary.

Pelicans are birds from the pelican-like family of the pelican family. In total, there are eight species of these birds, two of which: pink and curly pelican, live in Russia.

The appearance of these birds is very unusual: a massive, clumsy body, thick legs, webbing between the fingers, large wings, a rounded short tail. Particular attention should be paid to the pelican's beak: a massive heavy beak with a hook at the end can reach 47 cm, and a leather bag is located on the underside,
capable of greatly stretching, in which the bird places the caught fish.

Depending on the species, the body length of pelicans reaches 130-180 cm, and the birds weigh from seven to fourteen kilograms. Despite the fact that pelicans are waterfowl, their plumage is quite loose, does not adhere to the body like a duck or goose, and quickly gets wet. Very often you can see how birds “squeeze” their feathers with a massive beak.

The plumage of birds is most often white in color, may be grayish or
have a pink tint. The feathers of the occipital region often form a crest. Females are noticeably smaller in size than males and are not so brightly colored, most often their feathers are dirty gray or brown.

Pelicans settle near shallow salt or fresh lakes, near sea shallows, at the mouth of rivers. These birds are very clumsy waddling over land, but they are excellent swimmers and can soar beautifully in the air for a long time, overcoming tens of kilometers in a day. However, the pelican cannot dive deep, they get food at the surface of the water,
bow their heads and grab a gaping fish.

Pelicans create pairs only for one season, both the female and the male participate in the construction of the nest. Moreover, the female is directly involved in construction, and the male brings building material. It often happens that several pairs come together and build a large common nest.

The female lays only two or three eggs, which are yellowish or bluish in color, and for a month the couple incubates the eggs in turn. The babies appear naked, only on the tenth day the little pelicans are covered with fluff, and on the 75th day they fledge and can already fly.

Both parents also take part in feeding the little pelicans: they burp partially digested fish from their own stomach for the chicks, it is this method of feeding that gave rise to the legend that the pelican rips open its chest to feed the chicks and feeds them with their own blood.

A pelican is a bird that belongs to the pelican family and forms a genus consisting of 8 species. These birds can be found on all continents of the globe, except for Antarctica. They live in warm and temperate latitudes from 45 degrees south latitude to 60 degrees north latitude. That is, they settled in both Tasmania and Canada. They live along the coasts of inland and coastal waters. Those representatives of the genus that nest in temperate latitudes will mix south in winter. The inhabitants of warm latitudes are sedentary and do not migrate.

The bird is large with a very long beak up to 45 cm, which is bent at the end. In the lower part of the beak there is a well-stretched leather bag with a volume of up to 5 liters. This is a kind of fish tank and rainwater tank. The neck is long, the legs are short and thick. They end with large webbed paws. In the skeleton and under the skin, the bird has air pockets, which makes it easy to stay on the water with a lot of weight. The tail is square and short. The wings are long, wide and have a large number of secondary flight feathers. On the back of the head, feathers form a crest.

The smallest is the view brown pelicans. Their average weight is 4 kg with a body length of 1-1.4 meters with a wingspan of 2-2.3 meters. These are the natives of America. And the first place in size is occupied by curly pelicans. These birds live in Europe and Asia. Their weight reaches 15 kg with a body length of 1.6-1.8 meters. The wingspan reaches 3.2 meters. The longest beak Australian pelicans. In males, it grows up to 50 cm.

As for the plumage color, light colors predominate in it - white, gray, pinkish. Flight feathers are dark. The bare areas of the muzzle and beak become brightly colored during the mating season. Males are larger than females. Hatched chicks are naked with pink skin. Then they turn black, and when they fledge, they become brownish-gray young birds.

Reproduction and lifespan

Birds nest in large colonies. A pair of male and female form only for one season. Immediately after the end of the nesting period, it breaks up. The nest is a large pile of plants. But this is typical for the largest species. Small species can arrange nests in trees, but on condition that they grow near water. Nests are built by females, while males only carry building material. Most often, there are 2 eggs in the clutch, but sometimes up to 6. The shell is rough, yellowish or bluish.

The incubation period lasts 30-35 days. The female incubates mainly. Chicks are born blind and naked. Fully covered with down 2 weeks after birth. On the wing become 2.5 months after birth. Puberty occurs at 3-4 years. In the wild, a pelican lives from 15 to 25 years. Life expectancy is longer in captivity. A case was recorded when the bird lived for 54 years.

Nutrition

The main diet consists of fish, the length of which does not exceed 30 cm. Turtles, crustaceans and small birds are also eaten. All hunting takes place at the surface of the water, since the bird cannot dive due to air pockets. True, American species dive, but for this they fall into the water from a height. Carrion is sometimes eaten, especially for the inhabitants of Australia. Prey is never stored in the throat pouch. The fish only gets into it and is held there while the water is drained. The prey is then immediately swallowed. On the day the bird needs to eat at least 1 kg of fish.

population

The number of these birds is negatively affected by environmental pollution as a result of human activities. But in general, the number of individuals of most species is kept at a stable level. Only 3 species are classified as endangered. Birds of all kinds breed in zoos, which is undoubtedly beneficial for their conservation.

650 thousand of these birds live in Latin America. 250 thousand live in the US and the Caribbean. The Dalmatian Pelican has the lowest population.. It is only 20 thousand birds. This species is listed in the Red Book and is endangered. In Mongolia, it has practically disappeared completely. There are only 1000 breeding pairs in Greece. But the Australian population reaches 500 thousand individuals. Birds live in wetlands across the continent. It is in Australia that the situation with the number causes the least concern.

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 primarily 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 security. 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. On 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 is very high, as 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 lifespan 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 herd 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.