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The brown pelican is the national bird of three Caribbean countries—Saint Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, and Sint Maarten—and features on their coats of arms. [136] [137] [138] It is also the state bird of the US state of Louisiana, which is known colloquially as the Pelican State; the bird appears on the state flag and state seal. [8]
Brown pelican showing throat pouch. The brown pelican is the smallest of the eight extant pelican species, but is often one of the larger seabirds in their range nonetheless. [15] [16] It measures 1 to 1.52 m (3 ft 3 in to 5 ft 0 in) in length and has a wingspan of 2.03 to 2.28 m (6 ft 8 in to 7 ft 6 in). [6]
Gular skin (throat skin), in ornithology, is an area of featherless skin on birds that joins the lower mandible of the beak (or bill) to the bird's neck. [1] Other vertebrate taxa may have a comparable anatomical structure that is referred to as either a gular sac, throat sac, vocal sac or gular fold .
Pelican showing length of beak and size of pouch. Australian pelicans feed by plunge-diving while swimming on the surface of the water. They work in groups to drive fish to shallower water, where they stick their sensitive bills in to snatch their prey. Some feeding grounds in large bodies of water have included up to 1,900 individual birds. [10]
The American white pelican rivals the trumpeter swan, with a similar overall length, as one of the longest birds native to North America. Both very large and plump, it has an overall length of about 50–70 in (130–180 cm), courtesy of the huge beak which measures 11.3–15.2 in (290–390 mm) in males and 10.3–14.2 in (260–360 mm) in ...
The great white pelican is a huge bird—only the Dalmatian pelican is, on average, larger among pelicans. It measures 140 to 180 cm (55 to 71 in) in length [6] with a 28.9 to 47.1 cm (11.4 to 18.5 in) enormous pink and yellow bill, [6] and a dull pale-yellow gular pouch.
The Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) is the largest member of the pelican family and perhaps the world's largest freshwater bird, although rivaled in weight and length by the largest swans. They are elegant soaring birds, with wingspans rivaling those of the great albatrosses , and their flocks fly in graceful synchrony.
As traditionally—but erroneously—defined, they encompass all birds that have feet with all four toes webbed. Hence, they were formerly also known by such names as totipalmates or steganopodes . Most have a bare throat patch (gular patch), and the nostrils have evolved into dysfunctional slits, forcing them to breathe through their mouths.