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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI14090831/00001
Notes
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Brown Pelicans 1
Length of Segment: 00:01:16
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. ‘A wonderful bird is the pelican; his beak can hold more than his belican,’ or so we're told in Tennessee newspaper editor Dixon Lanier Merritt's famous limerick. The brown pelican's beak can be more than a foot long, but it is only the frame for the loose throat skin that becomes the pelican's tool for capturing and carrying its food. When a brown pelican is at rest, its muscular throats can contracts to give the bird a sort of double-chinned appearance. But when it dives into the water in pursuit of the fishes it eats, that throat skin stretches, turning the pelican's throat into a pouch that can hold as much as two-and-a-half gallons of water and fish. The long, slender upper bill serves as a rudder, stabilizing the bird's movements and as a tool to chase fishes into the pouch. The bones of the lower bill bow outward to create a bucket-sized opening to the pouch. With the fish inside, the bones of the lower bill return to the normal shape and the upper bill closes over them to trap the fish inside. To eat its meal, or to fly, the pelican must first drain the water from its pouch. And while draining its pouch, laughing gulls sometimes steal their meal. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Brown Pelicans 2
Length of Segment: 00:01:15
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. While brown pelicans are always easy to identify because of their distinctive size, shape, and generally dark color, they also have three distinctly different plumages. Males and females are always similar in appearance, but young and old birds differ. During its first two years, a young brown pelican is a rather drab gray-brown all over. By its third year, however, a brown pelican begins to show its characteristic adult colors. The basic plumage it has in winter includes a white head and neck. Prior to breeding in spring, however, adult pelicans replace body feathers with an alternate plumage, giving them a white to yellow-white head and a chestnut-brown neck. I always tell my students that they can remember the plumages of the brown pelican by linking the white neck of the winter bird with snow, and the brown neck of the nesting birds with bare ground. Its nesting approach is the bill and bare skin of a brown pelican's face and throat can show colors ranging from blue-gray to dark green and pink, orange, or red. The intensity of color is greatest in the weeks just before nesting, and the colors shown vary among pelican populations. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Brown Pelicans 3
Length of Segment: 00:01:15
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Brown pelicans are normally found all along the warm coasts of North and South America and throughout the Caribbean. They typically nest in colonies on off-shore islands that are free of predators, such as raccoons, and that have minimal human disturbance. Larger colonies can include several thousand pairs and successful nesting can take more than four-and-a-half months. Males generally select the nest site, but it's the female that builds the nest from sticks brought by the male. Their crude stick nests are placed in low trees or on the ground. Because of the brown pelican's long wings and large size, the vegetation of a nesting area has to be open enough to allow the birds to extend their wings to take off. A female brown pelican lays two to four chalky white eggs that the parents incubate by wrapping the webbing between their toes around them. The eggs take four-and-a-half weeks to hatch and, for their first three weeks of life, one of the adult birds remains with the chicks. At the age of two-and-a-half months, young brown pelicans take their first clumsy flight. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Brown Pelicans 4
Length of Segment: 00:01:15
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Unlike ducks, which have only their three forward facing toes joined by webs, brown pelicans have all their toes joined by webs. In the water, the pelican’s strong legs and extensively webbed feet provide tremendous power and agility that aid in capturing fish. The brown pelican's six foot wing span seems to get in the way as birds jostle for position on a dock, but in flight it allows the pelican to glide with little effort just above the waves. Brown pelicans dive from as high as 60 feet, pulling their wings close to the body as rudders to guide their descent, then holding them up as they hit the water with tremendous force, thus, keeping them out of the way of their fishing efforts. A brown pelican's dive may seem to be a belly-flop because it sends up a spray of water, but it hits the water head-first with its neck extended and its feet pulled forward. Its breast takes the brunt of impact, but beneath the pelican's breast skin is a special shock-absorbing layer of fat. As it hits the water, its pouch opens as a net and its feet push back, quickly propelling the pelican deeper in pursuit of its meal. ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- Source: Brown Pelicans 5
Length of Segment: 00:01:15
Hi, I'm Dr. Jerry Jackson, out with the wild things. Because brown pelicans show little fear of humans, it's no surprise that their interactions with us sometimes gets them in trouble. Young brown pelicans improve their fishing skills as they mature and at first take meals wherever they find them. Offering them a leftover bait or fishes too small to keep only encourages them to look to humans for a handout. Don't do it. It can lead to the pelican’s death. A cast by a fisherman is like another free meal to a human-pampered pelican, and the bird can be literally, as well as figuratively, hooked. The skin of the pelican's pouch and the webs of its feet are very vulnerable to tears as a result of snagging. And if a pelican catches a hooked fish, the hook can result in the death of the bird. Discarded monofilament nylon, the plastic rings that hold six-packs of beverages together, plastic bags, and spilled fuel and oil also take a heavy toll on brown pelicans. Efforts to reduce these pollutants can help assure that pelicans won't just be silhouettes against the sunset of old postcards. ( English )
Record Information
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- Resource Identifier:
- FI00900164
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