© 2004 David N. Kitler ...Science Art-Birds

Title: Pelican Up-Close
Species: Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)
Artist: David N. Kitler (for further information, click on the artist's name)
Image size: 10 1/2" x 10 1/2"
Media: acrylic on Baltic birch
Date: 2004
Location of the Painting: private collection

The artist notes, "One of the things I enjoy about the Brown Pelican, is to watch them gliding close to the water, with their wing tips almost touching the surface.  Another is to watch them climb and stop midair, before turning and diving, beak first, crashing into the ocean in pursuit of food.  This painting, however, is my attempt to bring viewers closer to this species, which is endangered in many parts of North America*, helping them appreciate the beautiful details they could not see from afar."

Typically foraging in shallow water, not far offshore, these husky birds catch fish mostly by surface plunging. They perform these dives like clockwork: They usually face downwind and away from the sun, pull their legs forward, bend their wings at the wrist, rotate to the left (presumably to protect their trachea and esophagus, located on the right side of the neck) and then as their bill makes contact with the water, force their wings and legs backward and their bill toward the fish, opening it and expanding the pouch. If they come up empty, they quickly open their bill and drain the water, but if they get something, they keep their bill shut, push it against their breast to drain the water, toss their head and swallow. Pelicans can be seen fishing, albeit usually at a distance, mostly early in the morning or in the evening and as the tide comes in.

*In 1970, the Brown Pelican was listed as Endangered throughout its range because of the usual suspects: pesticide and toxin contamination--especially DDT, but also endrin, DDE, a metabolite of DDT, dieldrin, and PCBs, among others. Oil spills, collisions, entanglement in fishing lines, habitat loss and degradation, human disturbance, and persecution by fishermen, all added to population declines in the U.S. and northwestern Mexico. Fifteen years later it was taken off the Endangered list in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and north along Atlantic coast. Elsewhere it remains in jeopardy.