DVOC Main Page > Birding the Delaware Valley Region > Birds of the Delaware Valley > Species Description

Brown Pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis

From DVOC's Delaware Valley Birds "Ocean, beaches, bays, and inlets. More common southward, but expanding northward"

Description:
Pelicans are quite distinctive birds. The only similar bird is the American White Pelican which is white in all plumages with black wing tips.

The Brown Pelican is smaller and darker; the body and wings gray/brown. Adult males have a white head; in breeding season the hindneck will be dark cinnamon brown. The large pouch-like bill is gray and the throat patch is black. Immatures have no white in the head. Habitat and Distribution
Brown Pelicans generally breed from North Carolina south to Florida. The first record in Delaware was a bird seen at Rehoboth Bay on May 30, 1934. Contamination by chlorinated pesticides caused a general population crash in the No. Carolina colony but as those populations began to recover the number of sightings in this area have increased. They began nesting in Maryland in 1987.


© A & J Binns

Status:
Formerly considered rare to uncommon, Brown Pelicans are now farily common summer visitors although there have been a couple of winter records in NJ. They generally arrive in mid-May and stay into October but their numbers are highly variable

Best Seen
Most birds are seen flying by coastal areas in small groups. They have been known to concentrate at roost sites like Barnegat Bay and Hereford Inlet in NJ. In Delaware they have been reported at Indian River Inlet

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