The Brown Pelican:
A Wonderful Bird
By Christine Sudell
“A wonderful bird is the pelican
His bill can hold more than his belican…”
— Dixon Lanier Merritt
M
any will remember this old limerick from
Photo above and below by Shauneen Hutchinson
30
Photo by Paul Roberts
childhood. It’s certainly amusing, but
does it pass a fact check? Well, yes—at
least in part. Attached to the bottom of
the brown pelican’s bill is a large pouch that helps it scoop up
fish. Unlike a net, though, the pouch has no drainage holes
so a pelican must take in a lot of water along with its meal.
In the process, the pouch can hold up to three gallons of
water. However, the pelican’s stomach can only hold a gallon,
making this part of the limerick correct. This amazing bird
avoids swallowing too much water and overwhelming its
stomach by tightening muscles in its tongue. These muscles
control the pouch and enable the pelican to use it to squeeze
out the water and help it to swallow its prey. Any water that is
swallowed is taken care of by a gland that removes excess salt
from the pelican’s body.
Can a pelican “hold in his beak, enough food for a week,”
as the next line of the limerick suggests? No—the beak
is not used to store meals. This bird is an eager eater and
immediately swallows its prey, eating about four pounds of
fish (and an occasional crustacean) a day. Though it is not
used to store meals, parents may use the pouch as a feeding
trough to feed their chicks food that they have digested and
regurgitated.
Naturally Kiawah