Pelicans eat fish, less often catch toads, frogs, crayfish, crabs. Contrary to philistine ideas, pelicans do not use their throat bag for catching fish “in reserve”, do not store prey in it, but swallow it immediately after the capture.
A bag is needed only for the delivery of live prey to the chicks during the nesting period. During the hunt, the pelican simply swims and watches the thick water with a sharp eye, as soon as he sees the shadow, immediately plunges his head into the water, opens his beak and catches fish like a net. Pink pelicans lining up in a chain and amicably drive the fish into the center of the pond, the extreme birds in the process of hunting approach and create a catching semicircle. As soon as the space becomes small enough, all pelicans as if invisibly team overturned and fish. In nature, there are cases of pelican eating chicks of gannets, cormorants, gulls, terns and even small penguins. In captivity, cases of pelican hunting for ducks and pigeons are known.
These birds multiply once a year, northern subtropics and temperate zones nest in the spring (April-May), the reproduction of tropical species is confined to either the rainy season or coincides with the approach of the schools of fish to the shores. Pelicans are monogamous birds, they are broken up into pairs, which persist for one season. The marriage ritual proceeds quite calmly, the fights do not suit the males, but they attract the females with “songs”. The voice of the pelicans is rough and low, like a murmur, a mumbling or a roar.
