The brown pelican is the smallest of the eight species of pelican but still is very large, having a wingspan of 6 to 8 feet. They were put on the endangered species list in 1970 when their numbers dropped to about 10,000. However, the use of DDT, the cause of most of their problems, has been banned and their numbers have come back to an estimated 650,000, to the point where they were removed from the endangered species list in November 2009. The brown pelican below was photographed on the Pismo Beach Pier in Central California. I love the yellow forehead, the red throat and the yellow under the bill.
We were just in San Luis Obispo recently and drove up to San Simeon State Park. There I hiked over to Skull Rock and photographed a number of brown pelicans which were perched on it.
They are very fun to watch fly, but unfortunately, I don't have any photos of them flying.
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