Pelicans - Pélicans

If you've seen a pelican, it was most likely in a tropical or subtropical vacation locales.

World wide there are seven closely related pelican species, all equipped with large pouches and strong appetites for fish.  Two of those species are found in North America, the Brown Pelican, and the American White Pelican.

While the Brown Pelican is occasionally seen in Ontario, it does so only rarely, and never nests here.  It is also the species you are most likely to see when visiting the southern U.S.

The other species, called the “American” White Pelican to distinguish it from the Great White Pelican of Europe, Asia and Africa, is actually a very Canadian specie, nesting through large areas of the Canadian prairies,  as far east  as Lake Superior. 

Besides being white, as the name indicates (but with a lot of black in the wing – the primary and secondary flight feathers being black; the huge beak, and webbed feet are orange) the white pelican tends to be more of a wilderness species than the Brown, nesting further north than any other pelican species, with large colonies well established in northern Lake Superior.  And yet most Ontarians not from that area (or who don’t boat in the region during the summer) still are not aware that pelicans are a native Ontario species.

Did you know ??

Pelicans can be found on all continents except for Antarctica.