Australian pelican

Australian pelicans eat mostly fish.

They dip their beaks into the water and scoop up fish in their pouches.

Australian pelicans eat mainly fish, but they also take crustaceans (the group that includes crabs and shrimp), tadpoles and even turtles. Their bill is sensitive, which helps them find fish in muddy water.

A pelican plunges its bill into the water and uses its pouch like a net. Then it draws the pouch against its chest to empty out the water, turns the fish so it goes down head first and swallows it. Pelicans often fish in a team, driving fish together into shallow water or into a tighter and tighter circle.

The diet is mainly fish, with crustaceans, tadpoles and turtles taken opportunistically; pelicans readily accept food from people, sometimes rob other birds of prey and, during starvation, have been reported eating other birds (Australian Museum). The sensitive bill helps locate fish in murky water, and a hook at the tip of the upper mandible is probably for gripping slippery food.

The pouch is a short-term collecting organ, not a store: after a catch the pelican draws it to its breast to empty the water and turns the prey head-first before swallowing with a jerk of the head. Birds feed alone but more often cooperatively, driving fish into a concentrated mass with their bills and sometimes their wings, then into shallows or ever-decreasing circles; one feeding group numbered over 1,900 birds. Pelicans have also been seen drinking rainwater caught in the open bill.

To choose a partner, a female pelican walks around the colony.

Several males follow her, one behind the other.

Pelican courtship is a parade. A female walks around the colony, followed by two to eight or more males. The males swing their open bills from side to side and sometimes toss a stick into the air and catch it.

The birds also 'ripple' their pouches by clapping their bills shut several times a second, so the pouch flaps like a flag in the wind. One by one the males drop out, until only one is left, and the female leads him to a nest site.

The Australian Museum describes a female leading two to eight or more males around the colony; following males threaten each other, swing their open bills from side to side and may pick up small objects such as sticks or dry fish, tossing and catching them. Both sexes perform 'pouch-rippling', clapping the bill shut several times a second so that the pouch ripples like a flag in a strong breeze.

As the parade continues, males drop out until, after pursuits on land, on water or in the air, a single male remains, and the female leads him to a potential nest site.

There are lots of Australian pelicans.

They need wetlands with plenty of water and fish.

The Australian pelican is listed as least concern. Wetlands International estimated 70,000 to 300,000 pelicans in 2023. Their numbers go up and down over the years. They breed when rain makes conditions right, sometimes in thousands when inland salt lakes flood.

Pelicans readily accept food from people, and a number of unusual items have been recorded in their diet.

BirdLife International assessed Pelecanus conspicillatus as Least Concern for the IUCN Red List (assessed 22 July 2024, published 2024): an extremely large range, 70,000 to 300,000 individuals, or 46,700 to 200,000 mature individuals (Wetlands International 2023), and a population considered to fluctuate over three generations (33.69 years); the assessment's data field gives the trend as stable. IUCN notes it was found in one of seven trade datasets evaluated, at low prevalence (Donald et al. 2024).

Breeding depends on rainfall, sometimes on inland salt lakes flooded by monsoon rains, and recent studies suggest less movement between coastal and inland wetlands than was once thought (BirdLife Australia).