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| Pelicans
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Pink-backed Pelican (Pelecanus rufescens). | ||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||
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Pelecanus occidentalis Pelecanus thagus Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Pelecanus onocrotalis Pelecanus crispus Pelecanus rufescens Pelecanus philippensis Pelecanus conspicillatus |
Pelicans can grow to a wingspan of three meters and weigh 13 kilograms, males being a little larger than females and having a longer bill.
From the fossilFor other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation Fossils are the mineralized remains of animals or plants or other artifacts such as footprints. The totality of fossils and their placement in rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fo record, it is known that pelicans have been around for over 40 million years. Modern pelicans are found on all continents except AntarcticaAntarctica (from Greek nu;ταρκτικ&sigmaf opposed to the arctic) is a continent surrounding the Earth's South Pole. It is the coldest place on earth and is almost entirely covered by ice. It is not to be confused with the: they are birds of inland and coastal waters and are absent from polar regions, the deep ocean, oceanic islands, and inland South America.
Pelicans are gregarious and nest colonially, the male bringing the material, the female heaping it up to form a simple structure. Pairs are monogamous for a single season but the pair bond extends only to the nesting area; away from the nest mates are independent.
Because of its large beak and pouch, the pelican has a particular place in the public imagination: as one poet wrote, "A wonderful bird is the pelican; his beak can hold more than his belly can..." (The verse is attributed both to Ogden NashFrederic Ogden Nash ( August 19, 1902 May 19, 1971) was an American poet best known for writing pithy, funny, light verse. Nash was born in Rye, New York. His father owned and operated an import-export company, and because of business obligations Nash's f and to Dixon Lanier Merritt .)
In medieval EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Se, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood when no other food was available. As a result the pelican became a symbol in bestiaries for self-sacrifice, and was used as a symbol in heraldry ("a pelican in her piety").