This week’s bird of the week is Australia’s largest water bird – the Australian pelican, weighing as much as 13 kg (28.7 pounds). It is a genuine Australian pelican, and the only pelican found on the island continent. Despite their size, they can actually fly and in fact are quite the wanderers. In fact, one of the first pelicans we saw here in Australia was in a tree in the middle of a sheep pasture – see the lonely pelican in the tree below.
Since then we’ve seen a few pelicans around at various places, always easy to recognize and fun to watch – they definitely have attitude. Not only do fish have much to fear, I think you’d be scared to be another bird in their vicinity. At the same time, they seem to have a comical side.
I got to see the pelicans at the Healesville Sanctuary just after feeding time, and they were a boisterous bunch. I learned from the keeper feeding them that contrary to popular belief, the pelicans don’t use their big flappy bills to store fish – rather they use them as snapping nets to capture fish under water. She feeds them once a day usually, but sometimes they are not so hungry the first time, so she has to go back to give them the rest of their daily heaps of fish.
The wandering nature of the pelicans actually makes sense for a continent that undergoes huge shifts in water availability. We’re in a bit of a drought here now with the expected fall rains yet to fall, so hopefully the pelicans will be able to keep finding nice places to swim and fish as the year goes on.
