Brown pelican

How it lives

Brown pelicans live on salt bays, beaches and nearshore ocean. They nest in colonies on islands, either bare ground or mangroves and other low trees. A clutch is usually 2 or 3 eggs, incubated by both parents for about 28 to 30 days. Chicks fledge after about 9 to 12 weeks. Birds first breed at about 3 to 5 years old. The oldest recorded wild bird reached 43 years, according to Animal Diversity Web.

Where it goes

Brown pelicans mostly stay along the coast all year. Birds of the World calls them permanent coastal residents rather than true migrants. Animal Diversity Web says birds in the northern part of the range move seasonally. In the tropics they may nest at any time of year.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

Estimates of the world population range from about 300,000 (Partners in Flight, quoted by Isla Contoy) to about 370,000 (Audubon) and about 650,000 (Wikipedia summary), so the true figure is uncertain. The IUCN Red List rates the species Least Concern. In the United States it was listed as endangered from 1970 because DDT thinned its eggshells. After DDT was banned in 1972 it recovered, and it was removed from the endangered list in the south-east in 1985 and across the rest of its range in 2009. In Mexico, Isla Contoy National Park, run by CONANP, is a protected nesting and feeding area for seabirds. Pacific sardine declines since about 2014 are a concern for breeding birds in California.