American White Pelican Takeoff

American White Pelicans are a species I should train my lens on more often. While they’re sitting on the water they often don’t make a very interesting subject but getting that huge 16 lb. body airborne is a real struggle so photos of them taking off have much more interest for many of us.

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White Pelican Stretching Pouch in Flight.

American White Pelicans are known to do some pretty strange things with their pouch – one of them is pouch stretching (I’ve been unable to find an official term for the behavior).      A four year old image – I no longer have the original file so can’t access exif data They pull their head back and force their very flexible pouch down over their neck and upper chest in a process that looks, well.. bizarre.  I don’t think this behavior is particularly unusual as I’ve seen and photographed it several times.  According to Birds of North America Online the function of this display is “uncertain”.      Canon 7D, 1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 500 However, these birds are also fully capable of pulling the bottom of their pouch up above the level of the lower mandibles without having to pull the pouch down over their neck.   I don’t fully understand how they’re able to do this since the pouch itself is non-muscular.  Internet research on the subject has been unproductive.   I assume there must be some form of bony or cartilaginous rod that extends from the throat area down the middle of the bottom of the pouch about half way to the tip of the bill.  With muscular control of the base of that extension in the throat area they would be able to raise the bottom of the pouch above “horizontal”.  I’ve seen them do it twice – the  first time without a camera while the bird was perched.  But the second time, a couple of weeks ago, it was done in flight which…

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