| Brown Pelican | ||||||||||||||
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| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Pelecanus occidentalis |
The Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis †) is the smallest (42"-54") member of the pelican family.
It lives strictly on coasts from Washington and Cape Cod to the mouth of the Amazon River.
The bird is distinguished from the American White Pelican by its brown body and its habit of diving for fish from the air, as opposed to cooperative fishing from the surface. It dines mostly on herring-like fish.
Pesticides like DDT and dieldrin threated its future in the southwest United States and California in the early 1970s. It is the state bird of Louisiana.
The Brown Pelican is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1972.