Plunge-Diving Pelicans & What’s With That Pouch?
My two previous posts presented the Brown Pelicans in flight and in portrait. The hardest challenge with them has been their sudden plunge-dives when foraging for food. Here’s my best shots, albeit not totally in focus. But, wow, how fun the challenge!
Plunge-diving Brown Pelicans are quite entertaining to watch. They use their acute eyesight to hunt for schools of small fish from the air at heights as much as 60 feet above the surface.
When food is sighted, the Brown Pelican plunge-dives head first into the water at high speed, tucking and twisting his neck to the left to protect the trachea and esophagus from the impact.
The Brown Pelican’s body is also padded with air sacs just under the surface of the skin that cushion the force of impact when it strikes the water.
Another dive……
And another……
Brown Pelicans consume up to 4 pounds of fish per day.
As the Brown Pelican plunges into the water, its fleshy throat pouch, called the gular pouch, expands like a net to scoop the fish while also filling with up to 2-3 gallons of water.
Once the gular pouch is full, the Brown Pelican tips his head back, with beak to the sky, allowing the openings at the back of his beak drain the water away, leaving only the captured fish.
The Brown Pelican will then turn the fish in order to swallow them head first to prevent the fins from catching in his throat.
Sometimes they try to steal a meal from others as well. This poor Cormorant didn’t have a chance when he surfaced with a nice size fish. The Pelicans were immediately in the water and one successfully stole that fish. The Cormorant just looked on in disbelief.
You can see the fish outlined in the Brown Pelican’s pouch.
Tip up that beak and down it goes!
Brown Pelicans will perch and watch another ‘take the plunge’. For sure to see if they themselves have a chance in stealing the meal or snatch up what is missed.
In the next three-photo series, the Brown Pelican in the water seems to be chanting on the plunging Pelican! Go! Go! Go! 🙂
In addition to the Brown Pelican’s gular pouch being used as a fish net, it is also an aide in mate attraction as well as a cooling device. When the Brown Pelican gets too hot, it opens its bill and flutters the sides of its pouch.
A closer look at that gular pouch…..
When he turned his head, the gular pouch was back-lit for an interesting shot.
Say, Ahhhhhh……..
And again……
I’ve always admired the comical, gawky Brown Pelican from others’ photos or during our short Florida trips in past years. I enjoyed getting to spend so much time with them these last few weeks, giving me the chance to study them, and learn and share the Brown Pelican with you.
Photos by Donna 
Awesome shots! I’ve seen pelicans feed many times but never was close enough to get photos like you got. Fabulous!
Thanks so much Kelly! 🙂
Fantastic work Donna! I’m proud of you my dear friend. Great post! 🙂
Thank you HJ! It’s been great to get a little up-close and personal with them. 🙂
Incredible photos. The blood vessels of the gular pouch are amazing to see.
Another fine set Donna. Brian
Thanks so much, Brian!
Donna these are absolutely wonderful and amazing. And I love your commentary. You obviously did a lot of research, which the rest of us can enjoy along with the photos. Thank you, as always, for sharing!
Thank you Susan! Getting to spend so much time around them for all these weeks, I really wanted to learn more about them, and enjoyed studying their behaviors. Always nice to share information to others who might not know! 🙂
WOW! Amazing diving photographs you captured, dear Donna! Loved them all. Thank you, have a nice day and weekend, Love, nia
Thank you Nia! They were challenging but still a lot of fun to practice. 🙂
Wonderful series Donna! I love watching them dive. You captured them doing it very well indeed!
Amazing photos!
Thank you Terry!
Wow, just super photographs! I know it’s not easy to catch those dives, they are so incredibly fast. Especially love the close-ups of the pouch. Amazing. I’m surprised they didn’t try to eat your lens. 🙂
Thanks so much, Lisa! You know me by now, I love the challenges that birds offer in their character and behavior skills. 🙂 I do think he could gobble the entire lens in one gulp! lol
Fantastic photos Donna, I love pelicans and would love to watch them diving like that. Thanks also for the interesting info about them.
Thank you Sue, they are quite fascinating & entertaining to watch. Around the coastal marshlands at a fishing pier where I am these days, the pelicans draw quite a crowd of people. Sometimes I thought the pelicans really were throwing some ‘looks’, like good gosh, here they are again. lol You’d love it!
A wonderful set of pictures of a most attractive (in its own way) bird.
Thanks Tom, they’re definitely a unique bird. 🙂
Oh my gosh … you’ve been so busy! I love pelicans and these photos are awesome. Some of my favorites are in the ‘Brown Pelican Profile’ section.
Thanks Denise! I’ve never had a chance to watch pelicans on a daily basis, so when I found ‘the spot’ to watch them while here in SC, I knew I had an opportunity I couldn’t ignore. I’ve always loved pelicans too, so it has been a real treat to study and photograph them. 🙂
Wow! These were amazing captures. I learned so much from this post.
Thanks Gunta, getting the chance to study them for these last several weeks required my need & desire to learn about them too. It is my hope always that I am able to educate a few others about birds through my posts beside myself. I am glad I did with you! 🙂
The pterodactyl replacements! (They sure do eat a lot of fish!) 🙂
Yes and yes! 🙂
Thanks for sharing the wonderful photos and information!
You’re welcome, I am glad you enjoyed them and the post as much as I enjoyed sharing them. 🙂
Wow! What an wonderful selection of Pelican shots and commentary Donna – we don’t have any of those cool birds where I live. Also thanks for the follow!
Thanks Michael! I’m originally from the Chesapeake Bay area and it’s more a rare sight to see a Pelican mid-way up the Bay. So it’s been a real treat to get to study and photograph them so much these past several weeks while visiting South Carolina. 🙂
You must be incredibly patient to capture suck amazing shots.
Thanks Chris, I do have a lot more patience being out with nature and birding! 🙂
I have never seen brown pelicans , let alone this kind of diving from the white pelicans, so it is enjoyable to observe their behaviours as they fish from great heights. Those are big fish to swallow and I wonder if there is a chemical process that happens to help kill and digest such a large mouthful. The pouches are amazingly elastic with a fine network of veins showing in the backlit shots. For the images not to be sharp is , in my opinion, easily forgiven.
There are eight species of Pelicans, two in North America, the Brown Pelican & the White Pelican. The Browns dive the way I described, but the Whites do not, they feed while floating. Amazing, huh?! I wasn’t sure about their digestive ways, and didn’t find any info. But something has to occur you’d think. Thank you, Jane, for your awesome comments!
Excellent post, Donna! Your dive shots are great! They are fun to watch and I enjoyed your info and commentary that went with your shots, too. I’ve seen Cormorants steal fish from each other but not seen a Pelican do the stealing. Neat!
Thanks Ellen, I got probably a dozen photos of the Cormorant with the disbelief looks, he really did look shocked. lol It looked like he thought about taking it back, but the other Pelican seemed to give the look-advice, don’t do it. I have certainly enjoyed your SC Brown Pelicans!
The pelicans are very entertaining. Are you still in SC or have you returned to the cold?
Still in SC til the end of March. 🙂
Nice!
Amazing shots Donna! I am amazed also that your brown pelican dives in this way, quite differently to our Australian Pelican which uses several very clever fishing techniques, but have never seen it dive like yours. We see terns dive like this every day, but not pelicans. Yes it is in the learning and studying of the birds that brings great wisdom to us, we can learn so much from them.Thanks for sharing these great captures and enjoy your week!
Thanks Ashley! They have been great entertainment and a fun challenge. Besides our Brown Pelicans, out of the eight total Pelican species, only the Peruvian Pelican also plunge-dives for fish. So our American White Pelican does not dive either. Pretty cool stuff! Thanks again Ashley, I hope your week has been going well, mine so far! 🙂
Fabulous photos and an interesting read.
Thank you Spugwash, I am glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Superb captures, Donna. Pelicans are really entertaining to watch. We have a few nesting almost in our backyard. 🙂
Thanks Sylvia! I’d love to watch the daily routine of them nesting in my backyard, how lucky for you! 🙂
Really love the one where you caught the pelican just as its beak hits the water.
Thank you BT! I am glad you enjoyed that one, they were such a challenge and lots of fun trying!
Another terrific pelican post, interesting background and excellent photos!
Thank you Belinda, I’ve been having fun with the Pelicans. 🙂
Hats off to you for getting these unique pelican photos. It’s almost as if you had trained them to pose and dive for you!
Thank you Hien, I really have had a lot of fun with watching the Pelicans for several weeks. 🙂
Marvelous pictures of these diving experts! I particularly love the last incredible capture, Donna! And your post reminds me I haven’t gone to the beach in ages 🙂
Thank you Helen! Yes, go to the beach for some toes-in-the-sand walks. I bet Dylan won’t say no to go! 🙂
I’d love to take Dylan, but dogs are not allowed on Gulf Beaches here, other than on special “dog beaches”. And birds tend to avoid those places…for good reasons 🙂
Hey, Donna, I was researching gular pouches today with specific ref. to brown Pelis. On G-images, there you were with one of the fab shots from this post! Your photos are several dozen times illustratively better than mine. May I use 3 or 4 of them, duly credited (in addition to you name being on them, I mean) and a link to your site? Quite understand if you’d prefer not, though so no worries if that’s the case! RH
Of course, you may! I enjoy your educational posts always!! It’s an honor to be included in one. Thank you for asking, much appreciated!