Description and Behavior

The ordinary name for Pelecanus conspicillatus is Australian Pelican. This bird has a very wide wingspan; it measures more than 3 meters. The pelican weighs about 13 kg. This makes one of the heaviest birds in the sky. It also has the longest bill; one that is 40 cm long. The pelican is never burdened by its weight. The wings are wide enough to carry all this weight.

Pelicans are very graceful birds while flying. As if that is not enough, they have the ability to remain in the skies for more than 24 hours. By all this time, they will have covered hundreds of kilometers. They are identical to other pelicans in terms of webs on toes. Whenever they want to swim, they simply transform these toes into paddles.

An Australian pelican can live for up to 25 years. They are white but with black wings. The bill is orange in color. Some few have gray are which is fuzzily outlined at the neck, specifically at the back.

Habitat and geographical Range

Pelecanus conspicillatus is the only pelican that you can find in Australia. Incidentally, it is also present in Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. The best habitat for the Australian Pelican is any area where there is a pool of standing water. Many people associate this bird with coastal areas although during high rainfall, this bird can be seen in many inland regions. It loves freshwater, wetlands and estuarine areas. The bird also inhabits swamps, lakes, coastal islands, shores and rivers.

Feeding Behavior

Australian pelicans like feeding in large groups, in which case they cooperate in the task of capturing prey. They can easily invade schools of small fish and then take an amazing swoop on the prey that they have managed to push into a trap. Their bills are very sensitive when it comes to detection of prey. The upper mandible is hooked, making it very suited to snagging many slippery varieties of fish.

The bill pouch can easily expand in order to reach out to offer storage room for a short time. As many as 2000 pelicans can sometimes be noticed working towards one goal: feeding. The Australian pelicans are extremely voracious birds. They can consume more than 9 kg of food everyday. They eat small fish, tadpoles, crustaceans, ducklings, sea gulls, ducklings and turtles. Some they can be very brash; at such times they might follow you into your home, all in the name of searching for more food.

Colonial breeding is dependent on rainfall and can therefore take place at any month of the year. They normally like breeding in uninhabited islands. Courtship takes place in a very interesting manner. Many males swing their bills in order to attract the attention of a single female. At this time, they also like rippling their bill pouches. They toss various objects, and change their bills’ colors at will, all in the name of courtship.

Once one male has outlasted the other male in this game, the female selects a nest and uses her bill to dig a nest on the ground. She makes the ground comfortable by lining it with different types of plants and sometimes feathers.