Brown pelican, San Diego, California, United States  Jan 17, 2025

Today"s image features the brown pelican, a bird that doesn"t just fly but soars, spots and dives with unmatched precision. Although it"s the smallest of the eight pelican species worldwide, it"s still a large bird, measuring about 1.2 metres in length and having a wingspan of over 1.5 metres. The brown pelican is a piscivore, meaning its diet mainly consists of fish. Dixon Lanier Merritt"s limerick famously begins, "A wonderful bird is the pelican; his bill can hold more than his belly can," and it"s spot on—its pouch can store up to three times the volume of its stomach. This versatile feature acts as a scoop, a tool for cooling off during hot weather and a feeding trough for young pelicans. The brown pelican faced near extinction twice, first due to hunting and later from the impact of pesticides like DDT. Today, it"s an Endangered Species Act and Environmental Protection Agency success story.

© Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART/Getty Images

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