Brown pelican, San Diego, California, USA

© Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART/Getty Image

Brown pelican, San Diego, California, United States

Although it's the smallest of the eight pelican species worldwide, it's still a large bird, measuring more than a metre in length and having a wingspan of nearly two metre. It's a marine-dwelling species and can be spotted along the Atlantic coast of the Americas, from New Jersey to the mouth of the Amazon River. On the Pacific coast, it can be spotted from British Columbia all the way to Peru, including a stop at the Galapagos Islands.

The brown pelican is a piscivore, meaning its diet mainly consists of fish. Dixon Lanier Merritt's limerick famously begins, 'A wonderful bird is the pelican; his bill can hold more than his belly can,' and it's spot on—its pouch can store up to three times the volume of its stomach. This versatile feature acts as a scoop, a tool for cooling off during hot weather and a feeding trough for young pelicans. The brown pelican faced near extinction twice, first due to hunting and later from the impact of pesticides like DDT.