Brown Pelican

Overview

The Brown Pelican is a large, familiar coastal seabird, distinguished from the American White Pelican by its dark brownish-gray body plumage rather than white. It is well known for diving directly into the water from the air to catch fish, a technique unusual among pelicans.

Its head and neck coloring change strikingly with the breeding season, shifting between white, yellow, and rich chestnut tones, so feathers collected at different times of year can show quite different head plumage colors from the same individual.

Brown Pelican feathers combine dark body tones with more silvery wing coverts.

• Body feathers: Dark grayish-brown across the back, breast, and belly.
• Wing coverts: Paler silvery-gray, providing some contrast against the darker body and flight feathers.
• Flight feathers: Dark blackish-brown, large and broad given the bird's size.
• Head and neck feathers: Highly variable by season; white or pale yellow during nonbreeding, becoming a rich chestnut-brown on the hindneck with a whitish crown during breeding condition.
• Compared to American White Pelican: Brown Pelican feathers are dark overall, unlike the predominantly white body feathers with only black flight feathers seen in the American White Pelican.

Adults have a dark grayish-brown body with silvery-gray wing coverts, and a head and neck that shift seasonally: whitish or pale yellow with a dark hindneck in nonbreeding condition, developing a rich chestnut-brown hindneck and whitish-yellow crown in breeding condition. Sexes look alike. Juveniles are more uniformly grayish-brown overall with a dusky head and neck, gradually acquiring adult coloring over a few years.

Brown Pelicans inhabit coastal waters, estuaries, bays, and beaches along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts of the Americas, rarely venturing far from shore or into freshwater habitats. Populations are generally resident to short-distance migratory, with some northern populations shifting south in winter, while others remain in warmer coastal areas year-round.

This pelican is well known for its spectacular plunge-diving, dropping from the air directly into the water to catch fish in its expandable throat pouch, a technique that distinguishes it from most other pelican species that feed while swimming. It nests colonially on coastal islands, in trees, shrubs, or on the ground, building a bulky stick nest, and typically raises two to three chicks. Calls are generally low and croaking, given mainly at breeding colonies, as adults are largely silent elsewhere.