Brown Pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis
Brown Pelican · San Diego · 6 March 2026
A Brown Pelican on the rocks at La Jolla in breeding condition, visible in the wine-red hindneck stripe and the yellow-washed crown, both of which fade to plain grey and white for the rest of the year. Brown Pelicans nest colonially on offshore rocks and islands along this coast and fish the inshore water by diving.
They were themselves a conservation story: DDT thinned their eggshells to the point of collapse through the mid-twentieth century, and the population only recovered after the pesticide was banned in 1972. It came off the endangered list in 2009.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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