Hello everyone! Today I want to show you some photos of unusual birds for me — for the Show Me A Photo Contest Round 179 by @nelinoeva in the Feathered Friends community.
So, these are pelicans. I don't know how often you see pelicans in person, whether you've had the opportunity to look closely at their beaks, especially when they're feeding. For me, they are quite exotic birds, the first time I saw them up close was on the coast of Chile, and they really amazed me. In fact, I took these photos there. On the coast of Chile they are quite accustomed to people, in some places they even walk around fishermen and fish stalls without any hesitation.
So, to the question of what is extraordinary about these birds, in my opinion. Firstly, it is their rather large size, especially if you look at the wingspan in flight: the Peruvian pelican (I think I photographed individuals of this species) reaches 1.5 meters in length, and the wingspan can be up to 2.3-2.5 m.
Secondly, it is the size of the beak of these birds — it is very long, even if you look not only at the absolute size, but also at the ratio of its length to the length of the entire body.
Thirdly, and this is the most important thing for me, the structure of the beak itself. On the underside of the beak, pelicans have a very large, stretchable throat pouch, where the fish they catch are first placed, along with several liters of water, since they catch fish directly in the water. After catching the fish, the pelicans drain all the water from this throat pouch and only then swallow the fish.
In general, the appearance of a pelican with prey is very unusual and even somewhat alien: the narrow lower half of the beak diverges to the sides, becoming a couple of times wider than the upper half due to the stretching pouch, which also sags much lower if the pelican has caught a large fish or there is a lot of water in its pouch along with the prey.
Unfortunately, I can't illustrate the feeding process with my own photos, so far I haven't been lucky enough to photograph pelicans while they are eating, but you can look on the Internet or, for example, here :) Well, I limit myself to the photos that I took myself, as always, in which pelicans appear as beautiful, but unusual birds with long beaks and graceful curved necks.
I hope you liked them!
It's better to watch the photos in high resolution.
Camera: OLYMPUS E-M1 Mark II
You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on RTraveler. You also can read a short interview with me here.
Hello dear friend @sharker good day
How great that you had the opportunity to see this extraordinary bird in person, this is something we never see in the city where I live.
I appreciate you letting us know about these beautiful photographs
Have a great day
I don't live on the coast either, so they are so amazing for me :) Thank you!
These birds are really beautiful, I don't remember having the opportunity to see them in people, I'm sure I would have taken photos of them.
The shots you got there are really great, thanks for showing us this @sharker
Have a great day!
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I hope you will definitely see them somewhere!
Thanks a lot for watching and support :)
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Pelicans amaze with their size and unique beaks. The experience on the Chilean coast shows how exotic they are, especially when catching fish. Thanks for sharing!
That's right! Thanks for stopping by :)
Отличные снимки!
Спасибо! :)
Gorgeous photos of the pelicans! They are truely extraordinary with their big size and the throat pouch.
I had the pleasure to watch them fly and it is amazing how graceful they are.
Thank you very much for your stunning photos and wonderful post!
Thank you! :)
First sighting of a Pelican was visit to Bulawayo Park as a young girl my father worded this....
A limerick written by Dixon Lanier Merritt in 1910:
"A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak,
Food enough for a week,
I'm damned if I know how the hell he can!"
Very good limerick and very appropriate! I also still don't understand how they can swallow a fish half the size of themselves :)
We have the Great white pelican and pink-backed pelicans in our waterways on KwaZulu-Natal East Coast of South Africa, always a treat to see them in flight or paddling along.
Oh, the great white pelicans must be especially beautiful!
Have seen them in flight never close up, smaller pink have had on local river quite close. Still time to see the great white!
I hope you can see them in the near future! :)
Always on the lookout for the birds on our local waterways, exciting to see!
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