In captivity, pelicans live well, live to 20 or more years, but multiply, like many colonial birds, reluctantly. The number of species nesting on the arid zones drying up and again filling with water is subject to strong fluctuations – the nesting colonies appear and disappear again. Nevertheless, curly and gray pelicans are listed in the Red Book as vulnerable species. Rare are two of the six subspecies of the brown pelican – Californian and Atlantic.
Pelicans – inhabitants of marine shallow water, shallow fresh and salt lakes, estuaries of large rivers. They walk awkwardly, but they fly and swim well, they can soar for a long time. From the water rise after the take-off. In flight, because of a long heavy beak, the neck is held with the letter S, like herons and a marabou.
Because of the light skeleton and air-bubble layer under the skin, they can not dive, so the main food, fish, is extracted directly at the surface of the water. Only American species are able to dive, falling into the water from a height.
