Brown Pelican | Mexican Birds.org

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus. Photograph taken in the coastal area of Yavaros, Sonora, November 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus, Breeding Plumage. Photograph taken along the shore of the greater Bahía de los Ángeles area, Baja California, February 2020. Photograph courtesy of George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles. Identification courtesy of Mary & George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles.

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus. Photograph taken in the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, April 2017. Photograph courtesy of Carol Snow, Del Mar, California.

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus. Photographs taken in the greater Loreto area, Baja California Sur, April 2017. Note: second bird above is in breeding plumage. Photographs courtesy of Carol Snow, Del Mar, California.

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis. Photographs taken in the coastal region of Guatemala, March 2020. Photographs courtesy of Dr. Tom Bartol, Carlsbad, California.

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis. Birds photographed from the beach in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, March 2021. Photographs and identification courtesy of Marina Sutormina, Stockholm, Sweden.

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis. Bird photographed within the coastal region of Cancún, Quintana Roo, March 2021. Photograph and identifications courtesy of Marina Sutormina, Stockholm, Sweden.

Background and Identification

The Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus and Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis, are two of the five subspecies of Brown Pelican, three of which are found in Mexico. They are a member of the Pelecanidae Family of Pelicans, which has eight members placed in one genus, and one of eight global species of the Pelecanus Genus. The Brown Pelican is a highly social permanent resident of the coastal marine environment that is found in all Mexican coastal regions. They also are the only truly marine and predominantly dark-plumaged pelican species. This species now symbolizes the success of many wildlife conservation efforts, as they were once almost completely extinct. They date to the Pleistocene Period, 11,700 to 2,580,000 years ago. In Mexico, they are known as Pelícano Café and Pelícano Pardo.

The Brown Pelican is a large bird with a large body and a long bill, an enormous gular pouch, and totipalmate feet. The sexes are similar in appearance, but the males are larger than the females. This is called sexual dimorphism. They are brown with a white belly during their first year and gradually transition over three to five years to definitive plumage where they have gray to gray-brown underparts, and a brown to black belly with black and silver stripes. They molt three times a year with their head transitioning from pale yellow with a white neck post-breeding, a yellow head, and a dark brown neck just before breeding, and a brown neck during nesting. Based on subspecies their bill and gular pouch will vary in color, those along the Atlantic coast are a blackish metallic green and those in western North America are a bright red during courtship which gradually fade to yellow-gray and gray-green respectively with the onset of incubation. Their iris is straw white or light sky blue until the onset of incubation then darkens to brown. They have a blue-black or gray-pink eye-ring that fades to gray with the onset of incubation. They have black legs and feet.

Habitat and Geographical Range

Brown Pelicans are typically found in coastal habitats, including beaches, estuaries, and mangrove swamps. They prefer shallow waters where fish are abundant, and they are often seen perched on docks, piers, and other structures near the shore. They are strong swimmers with webbing between all four toes but awkward walkers. They have long wings and are graceful in flight, often seen flying in formation in lines above the water’s surface. They are shallow-water foragers within 20 km (12 miles) of shore that consume small, surface-schooling fishes such as anchovies, herring, menhaden, and mullet. Their nests are preyed upon by gulls, corvids, and Bald Eagles, as well as raccoons, feral cats, and feral dogs.

The Brown Pelican is found in all coastal regions of Mexico. The californicus subspecies is found along the Baja California Peninsula and through the Gulf of California south to Jalisco. The carolinensis subspecies is found from southern Veracruz south to Belize including all coastal regions of the Yucatán Peninsula and along the southern Mexican coast. Most birds are resident throughout their entire breeding range, but segments of many populations undertake annual post-breeding migration. Along the Atlantic coast, they initially disperse northward after breeding, followed by southward migration in autumn. In the Pacific, they are known to migrate across the Baja peninsula at its narrowest parts, most commonly at Bahía de los Ángeles, then move northward along the Pacific coast and southward along the Pacific coast of Mexico. They breed in very large colonies of up to several thousand pairs on dry, rocky areas along the Caribbean coast in the states of Veracruz, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Campeche and on the offshore islands and mangrove forests along the Pacific coast of Baja California, numerous islands in the Gulf of California, and estuarine and offshore islands along the mainland coast from Sinaloa south to Guerrero.

Common Misidentifications

The Brown Pelican is a straightforward, easy-to-identity bird but is sometimes confused with the American White Pelican, Pelacanus erythrohychos. This is a larger pelican that is all-white in color and does not exhibit the same plunge dive behavior as the Brown Pelican.

Conservation Status

From a conservation perspective the Brown Pelican is currently considered to be of Least Concern with increasing populations within their geographical range. Historically their populations have suffered significantly for many reasons. They were hunted for their eggs, meat, and skins by Native Americans and for feathers for the millinery trade in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Commercial egging is still practiced in colonies along the Pacific coast of Baja Mexico and the Gulf of California. They are very sensitive to organochlorine pesticides that cause eggshell thinning, which leads to breakage during incubation and low reproductive success. The banning of the use of DTT in the USA has reversed this trend. They are also highly susceptible to oil spills. Entanglement in sport-fishing gear is also a major cause of mortality with over 1,000 birds killed annually. Disturbance of their breeding colonies by human intrusion has also adversely affected their reproductive success. Their survival has been the focus of conservationists since the establishment of wildlife refuges within the Sea of Cortez by the Mexican Government in 1978.