The Return of the Brown Pelican
Endangered Since the 1960s, Pelecanus Occidentalis is Thriving
Brown Pelicans inhabit warm coastal areas of the Americas. Almost wiped out by DDT and hunting, they may be coming off the endangered list.
For people living and visiting along the Atlantic coast of the United States, from North Carolina south, the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is a familiar sight. This is the large brown bird with an expandable pouch in its bill that flies high over the water and plunge dives to catch fish.
About the Brown Pelican
The Brown Pelican is the smallest of the pelican species, though it’s still an impressively large water bird. Young birds are brown all over while adults have some white and yellow on the neck and head, with the back of the neck turning dark brown during the breeding season. Because of its overall brown colour, the Brown Pelican is easily distinguished from the other North American species, the American White Pelican.
Brown Pelicans range along sea coasts from North Carolina to Venezuela, Southern California to Chile, and in the Gulf of Mexico. They generally do not move inland or frequent bodies of fresh water, but sometimes visit the Salton Sea in California.
The species is a versatile nester, sometimes nesting on the ground, sometimes building nests of sticks in trees or low vegetation, and choosing the tops of sea rocks in Chile. Adults share the work of incubating eggs, standing on the eggs to keep them warm, a characteristic that makes weak eggshells particularly vulnerable to breakage.
Brown Pelican Recovery
The Atlantic coast is the only part of the Brown pelican’s range where it is not currently listed as endangered. Once very common on the Pacific and Gulf coasts as well, the species was nearly wiped out before it was listed as endangered in 1970. In Louisiana, once called the “Pelican State” no birds were left, and only a few pairs were known to be nesting in Texas. The bird had fallen prey to hunting and to DDT, the persistent pesticide that is also blamed for nearly eradicating the Bald Eagle and other raptors.
It’s thought that Brown Pelicans were exposed to DDT in fish, and that the chemical caused fragile thin eggshells that broke easily during incubation. The banning of DDT in the early 1970s marked a turning point for the species. The population recovered more quickly in the east, and the Brown Pelican came off the Endangered List on the Atlantic coast in 1985. Now it’s doing so well in the rest of its range, it may come off the Endangered List there as well.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the Brown Pelican as a species of “Least Concern.”
Sources:
Birds Of North America. Kaufman, Kenn. New York: Houghton Mifflin; 2000
"Brown Pelican." Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds.
"Brown Pelican Population Soars." Turner, Allen. Houston Chronicle; Feb 8, 2008
Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Perrins, Christopher ed. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2003
