Pelicans get as big as 70 inches in length and have a wingspan of 10 feet and can weigh up to 30 lbs when full grown.
The pelican is a social bird and typically travels in flocks and often are strung out in a line and breed in groups called colonies that typically gather on islands.
American White Pelicans winter on the Gulf Coast, California, and Mexico.
During the spring they Migrate to their summer nesting areas in the Great Plains and the Great Basin.
The White Pelican migrates February through March and October through November.
At night pelicans will sleep on land and they will sleep either standing on both of their feet or even sleep when resting on their belly and breast with their head sideways on their shoulder with their beak tilted towards the side.
During the winter pelicans will usually go to and migrate to places such as Mexico, California and the Gulf Coast.
During spring pelicans usually go to and migrate to their summer nesting places in places such as the Great Basin and Great Plains.
The months that pelicans migrate are the months of February through March and also October and November.
Pelicans nest on relatively flat nesting sites such as soil, sand or gravel.
In southern and drier regions pelicans tend to nest in sparse vegetation and in forested areas pelicans tend to nest under trees or shrubs.
Pelicans are very fast fliers and can fly at speeds of 30 mph although they often spend their time in the air gliding while they search for food.
Some pelicans also have a wingspan of 6.6 feet to over 11 feet.
A pelican can fly and they are very good fliers and have the ability to soar like eagles with their giant pelican wings.
However for a pelican getting up into the air for flight can be challenging without wind.
In order to take flight pelicans have to run over water while beating their wings and pounding the surface of the water with both of their feet in unison to get enough speed to takeoff.
Pelicans live for 15 to 25 years although some pelicans have lived enough longer.
Pelicans usually live for more than a decade, but only three individuals have been known to live more than 20 years, reaching 31, 37 and 43 years of age.
Based on banding data, only 30 percent of pelicans survive their first year, and only 2 percent survive to age ten
Pelicans do make some noise during wing jerking which forces air from their lungs to produce a low hoarse sound.
The nestlings or baby pelicans make noises such as rasping squawking and shrill sounds to beg for food.
The adult pelicans rarely make any noise and are mostly silent.
The reason you never see baby pelicans is because when they fledge at 10 weeks to 12 weeks they have already grown their flight feathers and they are already adult sized pelicans.
You can identify a baby pelican by the brown and white feathers they have instead of the black and white feathers that their parent pelicans have.
Baby pelicans are called chicks or even nestlings.
Pelicans do not mate for life and they are seasonally monogamous which means that every breeding season the pelicans will pair up with a mate and then stay with that mate for the rest of the season.
And following the breeding season the pelican might be with another mate or be with the same mate.
Pelicans live in the US and other locations which include southern California, the Gulf States, Mexico, and Central America.
Populations breeding in Texas and Mexico are resident.
Pelicans live and find habitats around coastal beaches and lagoons.
Although their native range includes the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, brown pelicans spend a lot of time on small islands away from populated areas.
Pelicans are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae.
They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing.
They have predominantly pale plumage, except for the brown and Peruvian pelicans.
Brown pelicans search for fish by flying low over the water.
There are more than half a dozen species of pelicans, but all of them have the famous throat pouch for which the birds are best known.
These large birds use their elastic pouches to catch fish—though different species use it in different ways.
A pelican's typical fish selection primarily depends on its location, but common fish across the world are menhaden, herring, sheepshead, pigfish, minnows, silversides, and mullet.
Pelicans that live on the Pacific coast often rely on anchovies and sardines to make up the bulk of their fish diet.
A group of baby pelicans has no specific name, and you'd rarely see a group of baby pelicans together.
Pelicans nest in their breeding pairs and tend to isolate themselves from the flock whilst rearing chicks that are ready to fledge in around just 12 weeks.
Offshore at night is where the pelicans roost and then during the day they loaf.
Some loafing sites consists of pilings, jetties, sandbars, breakwaters, and islands.
On the Atlantic and Gulf coast, the brown pelicans move to small predator-free islands to breed.
Pelicans are not capable of sustained flapping flight, but can remain in the air for 24 hours, covering hundreds of kilometers.
They are excellent soarers and can use thermals to rise to considerable altitudes.
Flight at 1,000m is common, and heights of 3 000 m have been recorded.