Baby pelicans of the Central Coast

BABY PELICANS

of the Central Coast

WORDS CATHARINE RETTER

We’ve often heard it asked, “Why don’t you ever see baby pelicans?” And the answer invariably seems to be, “Because they fly great distances to remote breeding grounds”. But here on the Central Coast, that may not be strictly true.

Australian pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus) are widespread around coastal and inland Australia with permanent colonies more common in coastal regions. The transient breeding colonies inland depend upon flooding rains, with the best known of these on the island waterways of Lake Eyre. When it floods in Lake Eyre, it can attract more than 100,000 visiting pelicans, and some distant urban pelican populations can be suddenly and strangely absent from their usual environments. Those 100,000 pelicans are estimated to breed more than 30,000 chicks in one season.

We know that pelicans, despite their average body weight of 5.5 kg, and hefting around the largest bill of any bird in the world, can fly for up to 24 hours by identifying thermal currents that will help them soar hundreds of kilometres with barely a flap of their 2.4-metre wings. Without thermal currents, pelicans are not really capable of sustained flapping flight.

After the flooding of Lake Eyre, in 1974–75, when the chicks of that season grew into young adults they were known to have flown as far as Indonesia, Palau in the western Pacific Ocean, Fiji and New Zealand, well beyond their normal range.

Brisbane Water’s colony on the Central Coast is thought to have started in the 1980s, the result of that same pelican population explosion on Lake Eyre. The local colony is now considered to be quite large with about 350 nests. But you still can’t count on seeing pelican chicks before they’re adult size.

Pelicans breed on islands and permanent sandbars away from predators such as dogs. The bills and pouches of pelicans that are

ready to breed change colour quite dramatically, with the top and base of the bill becoming cobalt blue, the pouch bright pink, and the throat turning a chrome yellow. A mating pair will remain true for the season after a courting ritual that consists of a lot of bill clapping and pouch rippling.

After choosing her mate, the female leads him to what will be their nesting spot, and scrapes the ground to form a shallow depression for the eggs she will lay. Pelicans can breed at any time of the year, and not all females lay their eggs at the same time.

This means there are various sub-colonies, a little like creches, on the pelican islands. One may have parents incubating two eggs for about 32 days, using their webbed feet to keep the eggs warm, and taking turns to sit on the nest or go fishing for prawns, yabbies, fish and insects, as well as the odd reptile or pesky seagull.

Another “creche” may predominantly have new hatchlings, still bare of feathers (the gangly, ungainly age when “only a mother could love it”). The parents concentrate on regulating their nude offspring’s temperature between too hot or too cold, either of which can be fatal. At 10 days’ old, the chicks have grown fluffy grey down and can begin to regulate their own temperature. They venture from mum and dad’s feet and “bum-shuffle” (that’s a technical term) around to visit the nearest neighbours. »

© CHRISTINA PORTER

TOP Mating ritual with pelicans showing their bright breeding colours.

MIDDLE Bill clapping and pouch rippling is part of the mating ritual.

BELOW A sea eagle keeps an eye out for youngsters straying too far from their nests.

LEFT Two chicks are the norm for Australian pelicans, three for European pelicans.

© MERRILLIE REDDEN

© DOUG BECKERS

From six to eight weeks of age, they are more adventurous and start to explore a little further afield, even as far as the end of their island. The chicks begin to form their own creches, up to 100-strong, testing their independence and dividing themselves into groups that are learning to walk, testing the water for a bit of a duck paddle, or flapping their wings to build up their flight muscles.

When they fledge at 10 to 12 weeks, having grown their flight feathers, the chicks are already adult size (which is why you don’t think you ever see a baby pelican), but they can be identified by their brown-and-white feathers, instead of the black-and-white feathers of their parents.

“As one- to two-year-olds, the young pelicans are at their most adventurous,” says Greg Johnston Australian pelican expert and adjunct associate professor at Flinders University. “One banded youngster from the breeding colony at Coorong (Storm Boy territory) in South Australia was identified in New Guinea, a distance of 3,300 km away. Another turned up in Western Australia (about the same distance away as New Guinea). And because most pelicans are thought to return to their natal colony, both these youngsters could well have flown all the way back again.”

In the wild, pelicans live to about 20 years of age. But there are reports of much older ones.

“There’s a one-winged pellie on Tuggerah Lake whose wing was amputated almost 30 years ago,” says Cathy Gilmore from Australian Seabird Rescue Central Coast. “That would make him about 35 years, and still going strong.”

Sadly, the pelican’s main predator is mankind, with the biggest threat from fishing line entanglements, hooks in gullets, and suffocation from plastic bags. Enthusiastic sightseers near breeding colonies also pose a major risk, scaring the pelicans into abandoning their eggs or exposing the chicks to sunburn, heatstroke and predators. At certain stages of the breeding cycle, pelicans will even abandon a colony entirely if they are disturbed. Keeping a distance of at least 150 metres from breeding colonies is strongly recommended.

We hope that with a greater appreciation of this lovable, gracious bird, people will respect the breeding colonies, and take greater care with fishing tackle and rubbish disposal. Our wild pellies deserve to live as long as their captive counterparts: to a ripe old age of 45 years.

TOP An ibis builds a more elaborate nest than her neighbours.

MIDDLE Fluffy grey down means the chicks can begin to regulate their own body temperature.