People do a double take when they first notice interesting, big, white birds on stretches of the Bow River, south of the Calgary Zoo and near the Sikome lake area. While Tundra Swans are seen once in a while on the Bow, American White Pelicans are a summer mainstay for Calgary bird lovers. But that’s not all. Double-crested Cormorants also inhabit the same stretch of the Bow River. Drivers on Deerfoot Trail often see these large black birds perched atop the high light standards as the birds dry themselves off after diving.
Cool Facts:
• American White Pelicans coordinate when feeding. Sometimes, large groups gather in wetlands. They coordinate their swimming to drive schooling fish toward the shallows. The pelicans can then easily scoop up these corralled fish from the water.
• American White Pelicans must provide roughly 150 pounds of food to nourish a chick from its birth to the time it’s ready to forage on its own.
• Contrary to cartoon portrayals and common misconceptions, pelicans never carry food in their bill pouches. They use them to scoop up food but swallow their catch before flying off.
• Pelicans are skillful food thieves. They steal from other pelicans trying to swallow large fish and are successful about one-third of the time. They also try to steal prey from Double-crested Cormorants that are bringing fish to the surface. In their dense nesting colonies, some birds even steal the food that a parent on an adjacent nest has disgorged for its young.
• Pelican chicks can crawl by one to two weeks of age. By three weeks they can walk with their body off the ground and can swim as soon as they can get to water. Older chicks move up to running, then running with flapping their wings, and by the age of nine to ten weeks, they can fly.
• American White Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants are often found together. They sometimes forage together (though they mainly hunt different fish and at different depths). Cormorants even nest individually or in groups within pelican colonies.
• Pelicans are big birds that can overheat when they’re out in the hot sun. They shed heat by facing away from the sun and fluttering their bill pouches—which contain many blood vessels to let body heat escape. Incubating parents may also stretch their wings wide to aid cooling.
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