Eastern brown pelican

The Eastern Brown Pelican

(Pelecanus occidentalis)

The Eastern Brown Pelican are very simple but loveable animals. Their habitat is strictly coastal. They are rarely found living more than 20-35 km from the shoreline. Their Domain is Eukarya, their Kingdom Animalia, and Phylum Chordata. The Brown Pelican’s Class is Aves and their Order is Pelecaniformes. Their Family is Pelecanidae. Their Genus is Pelecanus and their species is Pelecanus occidentalis. They have bilateral symmetry. The Brown Pelican is (of course) brown with countershading (camouflage that makes an organism look like the sky when you are looking up and look like the ground or sea when you are looking down). A black bill with a large pouch, and black webbed feet and legs. A behavioral adaptation is how they catch their food. they find a fish and dive down into the water with their mouth open and the fish is caught in their pouch. Another adaptation the Eastern Brown Pelican has is their countershading. This adaptation is structural due to it being camoflauge. This helps the pelican so its predators won’t notice it as much looking up at it or down. one more adaptation that the pelican has is their hollow bones. This adaptation is also structural. It is good for this coastal bird because its hollow bones help i fly.