PELICAN  

Pelican is the common name for the large aquatic birds of the family Pelecanidae, which reach 180 cm (72 in) in length. They have long necks, short tails, long, broad wings, and huge bills with deeply expansible skin pouches in the lower mandible; the upper mandible serves as a lid for covering the pouch. Widely distributed, predominantly over the warmer regions of the world, pelicans are strong fliers and swimmers, feeding on fish and crustaceans captured by diving into the water from the air or while swimming on the surface. They are sociable animals, often nesting in colonies of up to several thousand birds. Females produce two to three plain, bluish or yellowish eggs, although usually only one egg survives the 30 to 42-day incubation period. The young are born naked, and plumage appears after 8 to 14 days. The long fledgling period runs from 12 to 15 weeks, and sexual maturity occurs after the third or fourth year. The white pelican, Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, breeding in western North America, has a wingspan of up to 2.7 m (9 ft) and is white with black wingtips and a yellow bill. The smaller brown pelican, P. occidentalis, was placed on the endangered-species list in 1973, when it was found that pesticides had decimated the population by killing their food supply and causing the birds to lay eggs with shells too thin to last through incubation. By the mid-1980s, however, the pelican population was recovering thanks to conservation efforts.