A Marvelous Bird is the Pelican

As seen in Nature News, Liberty Wildlife's E-Newsletter. To subscribe, click here.

The Brown Pelican is one of only two species of pelicans common to North America. The White Pelican is mainly a fresh water bird while the Brown is found near salt water. Even though the brown is the smallest of the pelican species, they can reach lengths of four and a half feet and have wingspans of over seven feet. Not overly graceful on the ground, once airborne they can rival an eagle in stately soaring and ease of flight. Riding on rising air currents and thermals in perfect formations, they can also glide along the surface using the reduced drag of “ground effect.” It's really amazing to watch them hunt from a glide as they suddenly tuck their wings in, do a half snap-roll, and dive into the water, emerging a few seconds later, usually with a fish in the deep pouch of skin that marks their unique bottom bill. They are almost exclusively found in coastal areas, except when they are blown inland by storms. And there-by hangs a tale…or tail feather!

Some pelicans, mostly young inexperienced birds, find it easy to soar on strong winds and updrafts they encounter near storms that blow in off of the Pacific Ocean or the Sea of Cortez. Unfortunately, that inexperience sometimes leads them to delay their exit from these strong air currents until they have been carried far inland. Many times a pelican will end up hundreds of miles off course and if they wind up in Arizona, nowhere near the body of salt water that was there habitat, they are in trouble with a capital “T.” There is nothing sadder than a pelican in the desert!

In some instances, a hungry, lost pelican will see a rain-wet road and think it is a canal or river. They sometimes dive into it only to be injured or killed from the impact with the wet asphalt. If they are lucky, they find some body of water that contains fish. Many of the lakes around the Phoenix area are stocked for fishermen and these can provide a temporary oasis for a wayward sea bird like a pelican. However, many birds will likely die of starvation before they find such a haven.

Another factor in pelican survival is their parasite level. Normally sea birds like pelicans have a number of feather mites, lice and flukes that inhabit the feathers on their bodies. Under normal conditions, their populations are held in balance by a lot of things including their general health and the salt in the water they habituate. When the parasite level increases to a certain point, an overload can occur causing a general degradation in the health of the bird. This makes a rescue attempt both easier, since the subject is slower and sometimes too weak to fly, and more difficult since the rescuer will sometimes become a "host" to some of these tiny critters. Luckily they will either quickly die or evacuate on their own when they can't find feather material to eat, but in the interim, they can be very disconcerting!

In the past few weeks, we have been experiencing a spate of Brown Pelican arrivals in the area. As this is written, twelve have been brought to Liberty, two more are in the care of other rehab groups, and several more are still at large. As one of the volunteers said, “It’s raining pelicans out there!” Arizona Game and Fish is very curious as to why so many of these birds are showing up at this instant in time. One of the Sea World employees told me that they suspect the breeding success this year was very high and there is a surfeit of young birds, the prime source of "off course" strays in our area. Hopefully, the Great Pelican Round-up of 2004 will be successful and all of these magnificent birds will be returned to their home on the coast.

When Liberty Wildlife is able to capture a visiting pelican, we first assess the bird’s condition to make sure it is healthy enough to travel. Then, with the help of America West Airlines, the Pelican Pipeline is activated. The bird is flown to San Diego where the sea bird team at Sea World will pick it up, do any remedial rehabilitation, and finally release it back to the wild on the Pacific shore. These are the luckiest of pelicans that, hopefully, have learned a proper exit strategy from their experience!