Spectacled Pelican
| Spectacled Pelican | ||||||||||
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Spectacled Pelican ( Pelecanus conspicillatus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Pelecanus conspicillatus | ||||||||||
| Temminck , 1824 |
The Australian Pelican ( Pelecanus conspicillatus ) belongs to the family of pelicans (Pelecanidae). Its habitat is Australasia . It is a large, predominantly white-feathered pelican with short legs and a short tail. The wings are feathered black and white.
The IUCN classifies the African pelican as not endangered ( least concern ).
features
The spectacle pelican reaches a body length between 1.6 and 1.8 meters. The wingspan is 2.3 to 2.5 meters. They weigh between 4 and 6.8 kilograms. Sexual dimorphism is not noticeable. However, females are usually slightly smaller and have a slightly smaller beak.
As with most species of pelicans, with the exception of the brown pelican , the plumage is white, with dark wingtips and wing feathers. In sexually mature spectacle pelicans, the fore neck is yellowish. Adult birds also have a yellow-orange eye ring. The iris is brown. The legs and feet are dark blue-gray. The throat pouch is pink.
Young birds differ from the adult in their brownish instead of black plumage, their legs and feet are still brownish-gray to gray. The throat pouch is still pink-yellow to pink-brown in them. The dark circles are pale yellow.
Since the legs are set relatively far back on the body and are far apart, locomotion on land is clumsy and waddling. They float high in the water. Due to their weight, they need a relatively long run-up before they rise from the water into the air. In flight, spectacled pelicans bend the head back so that the head lies between the shoulders and the beak rests on the chest. Troops of spectacled pelicans traveling long distances often fly in a V-shaped formation or in a line. These formations occasionally break apart in order to orbit in the thermals and gain a higher altitude. Basically, the flight is strong, but since the muscles do not allow constant wing flapping, longer gliding phases alternate with phases of strong wing flapping.
distribution and habitat
The African pelican is found in Australia, Tasmania, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, East Timor, and the Fiji Islands. Random visitors occasionally also reach New Zealand. Long migrations occur especially when short-term large bodies of water in the interior of Australia dry up. In 1978, for example, when Lake Eyre dried up after two years with a high water level, a troop of 150 spectacled pelicans reached the Palau Islands and also appeared on Christmas Island as random visitors .
The African pelican habitats are inland wetlands, estuaries, and coastal areas. In Australia, the habitat extends into the arid interior, where, after the rains, large troops gather at the temporary flood plains. For example, from 1974 to 1976, when Lake Eyre was largely full and the Murray-Darling river system was abundant, there were hardly any spectacled pelicans in the Brisbane region. On the other hand, they were very numerous there in 1978 and 1979. As a habitat, African pelicans prefer waters with large open areas that are largely free of dense aquatic vegetation. The composition of the bank vegetation is irrelevant, but the waters must have open banks with no or only short-grass vegetation.
The African pelican is one of the bird species that have benefited from the colonization of the Australian continent by Europeans. Unlike smaller wetlands, the large bodies of water it uses have not been drained. At the same time, he benefits from the installation of water reservoirs and dams. It can often be seen on the shoreline in coastal cities. However, it only breeds in relatively remote locations and reacts there sensitively to disturbances from humans.
Food and subsistence
The spectacled pelican feeds mainly on fish. The fishing is carried out jointly in a larger group. The fish are driven into shallow water with the beat of their wings. There they are picked up with the beak, which acts as a landing net , and swallowed head first. However, the spectacled pelican is a feeding opportunist and will eat everything from insects to small crustaceans to ducks. Even small dogs have been identified as food for the spectacled pelican. The foraging for food takes place mostly during the day. Occasionally, however, they also look for food on moonlit nights.
When spectacled pelicans search for food individually, the neck is set back a little, the beak points downwards. If they discover prey, the beak is often stuck up to the head in the water and the prey is taken. The beak is then raised, the water is squeezed out of the throat pouch and the prey is swallowed while the head is thrown back. Occasionally spectacled pelicans also bump into the water from an altitude of one to two meters. However, they then only dip their heads and beak into the water.
Like most other pelican species, spectacled pelicans often hunt in troops. Individual groups comprised at least 1900 individuals. Spectacled pelicans then swim in a loose line, driving fish into the shallow water zone. Spectacled pelicans have already been observed using this hunting method on ducklings. This hunting method is also used against young birds of the herring head gull that are not yet capable of flying . The young birds are then killed one by one by thrusting their beaks. Adult herring head gulls are caught with a swift movement of the head and occasionally carried to the water, where they are drowned by the pelican. You will then be swallowed head first. Occasionally spectacled pelicans also show kleptoparasitism towards other water birds. They steal food from various species of cormorants , great egrets , Moluccan ibis and the predatory tern . They also steal fish from fishing nets.
Reproduction
The reproductive behavior of the spectacled pelican has not yet been conclusively investigated. Spectacled pelicans are colony breeders and have mongamous relationships that last at least one breeding season. Both parent birds breed and care for the young birds.
The breeding season depends on the dry and rainy seasons. In the north of Australia, for example, the breeding season usually falls between March and August, while in the south it usually falls between July and November. Breeding sites are found on low-lying islands or bank sections. They are sometimes so close to the water's edge that the nests are flooded when the level rises. The breeding colonies are by no means conspicuous. From a distance, they often appear as if Spectacled Pelicans were merely resting on the shoreline. Breeding colonies can be in the same place for several years. Occasionally, however, they are suddenly given up and occupied by breeding pairs again years later.
The nest is usually built from plant stems, sticks, algae, grass, leaves, feathers and the like. Nests are occasionally found in bushes, the breeding pair trampling down the branches to form a platform. The nesting platform has little or no indentation and is usually 50 to 70 centimeters in diameter. The size and diameter depend, among other things, on the available nesting material. Females only block material that they can find in the immediate vicinity of the nest. Males collect nesting material at a distance of one kilometer and carry it to the breeding site in their beak. The parent birds continue to build the nest until the young birds leave the nest. Abandoned nests are usually occupied by other spectacled pelicans.
The eggs are elliptical to elongated oval and pure white when they are laid, but get dirty very quickly during the course of the brood. The clutch consists of one to a maximum of two eggs. Clutches with more than two eggs only occur in exceptional cases. The second egg is usually laid within three days of the first egg being laid. The breeding season is 32 to 35 days and both parent birds are involved in the breeding. Usually the male breeds in the morning and the female in the afternoon. Newly hatched spectacled pelicans are naked, have orange-pink skin and their eyes are already open. They are covered with short gray down within a week. At the beginning they are continuously hovered by one of the parent birds and only left alone by the parent birds during the day when they are around 25 days old. They then occasionally leave the nest and form so-called children's groups or crèches with other young birds , which can contain up to 30 individuals. Parent birds in these children's groups only feed their own offspring. Fledglings stay in these children's groups until they can fly. Young birds try to fly for the first time when they are around three months old.
supporting documents
literature
- PJ Higgins (Eds.): Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds , Volume 1, Ratites to Ducks, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1990, ISBN 0-19-553068-3
Web links
- Pelecanus conspicillatus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed on December 18 of 2008.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Pelecanus conspicillatus in the Internet Bird Collection