Saturday 2 November 2013

PELICANS

Pelicans are a genus of large water birds comprising the family Pelecanidae. They are characterised by a long beak and large throat pouch used in catching prey and draining water from the scooped up contents before swallowing. They have predominantly pale plumage, the exceptions being the Brown and Peruvian Pelicans. The bills, pouches and bare facial skin of all species become brightly coloured before the breeding season.

The eight living pelican species have a patchy global distribution, ranging latitudinally from the tropics to the temperate zone, though they are absent from interior South America as well as from polar regions and the open ocean. Fossil evidence of pelicans dates back at least 30 million years, to the remains of a beak very similar to that of modern species recovered from Oligocene strata in France.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.




7 comments:

  1. Beautiful shots of the pelican.

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  2. Splendid looking birds - despite have lots of pelican shots already, I always take some more!

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  3. Absolutely gorgeous... Excellent shot...

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  4. We saw lots of pelicans in Baja years ago, but they were mottled grey. Even so, they were so graceful gliding over the surface of the water. - Margy

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  5. This looks so much like where we are in Florida. Everybody thinks of FL as being mostly palm trees and sand, but the part where we live there are a lot of green mossy creeks and rivers and we see pelicans there too!

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