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A wonderful bird is the pelican
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
The famous limerick about pelicans: "A wonderful bird is the pelican. His bill will hold more than his belican. He can take in his beak, Food enough for a week, But I'm damned if I can see how the helican." was written by Dixon Lanier Merritt in 1910.
The Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) is a large water bird, widespread on the inland and coastal waters of Australia and New Guinea, also in Fiji, parts of Indonesia and as a vagrant to New Zealand.
Australian Pelicans are medium-sized by pelican standards: 1.6 to 1.8 metres (5.3-6 feet) long with a wingspan of 2.3 to 2.5 metres (7.6-8.3 feet) and weighing 4 to 10 kilograms (8.8-22 pounds). They are predominantly white with black along the primaries of the wings. The pale, pinkish bill is enormous, even by pelican standards, and is the largest bill in the avian world. The record-sized bill was 49 cm (19.5 inches) long.
The species became first known to occur in New Zealand from a specimen shot at Jerusalem in 1890 and small numbers of subfossil bones, the first found at Lake Grassmere in 1947, followed by records of other stray individuals. The bones were later described as a new (sub)species, Pelecanus (conspicillatus) novaezealandiae (Scarlett, 1966: "New Zealand Pelican") as they appeared to be larger, but Worthy (1998), reviewing new material, determined that they were not separable from the Australian population.
The Australian pelicans are widespread on the inland and coastal waters of Australia and New Guinea, also in Fiji, parts of Indonesia and as a vagrant to New Zealand.
Australian Pelicans prefer large expanses of open water without too much aquatic vegetation. The surrounding environment is unimportant: it can be forest, grassland, desert, estuarine mudflats, an ornamental city park, or industrial wasteland, provided only that there is open water able to support a sufficient supply of fish.
Australian Pelicans follow no particular schedule of regular movement, simply following the availability of food supplies. When the normally barren Lake Eyre filled during 1974 to 1976, for example, only a handful of pelicans remained around the coastal cities: when the great inland lakes dried again, the population dispersed once more, flocks of thousands being seen on the northern coasts and some individuals reaching Christmas Island, Palau and New Zealand.
Breeding Australian pelicans will lay one or two eggs. After they hatch, the larger one will be fed more, and the smaller one will eventually die of starvation. For the first two weeks the chicks will be fed regurgitated liquid, but for the remaining two months they will be fed fish such as goldfish or the introduced European carp, and some invertebrates. Widespread throughout its large range, the Australian Pelican is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
IMAGE INFORMATION
Camera: Canon 20D
Time of day: 4:51 p.m.
Date: 5th May 2007
Weather conditions: Clear
Lens: Canon 70-200mm F/2.8L IS USM
Extender: Canon EF 1.4X II
Filter: Hoya 77mm UV
Shutter Speed: 1/250
F-Stop: F/8
Focal Length: 245mm
External Flash: Canon 580EX Speedlite
ISO: 400
Support: Hand Held
Original file type: Digital Raw |
red45, rkailas, mikou, gracious, fartash, scottevers7 has marked this note useful
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- red45
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2801 W: 75 N: 7845]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(26257) - [2007-07-02 3:36]
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Agree my friend! Both are beautifull - pelican itself and your portrait of this bird. Great sharpness, details and colours. Black BG exposed white feathers very well. POV is very nice, same as brave composition.
Hi Pam
Fabulous portrait...amazing details and colors.
TFS!
Ravi
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- mikou
(5265)
- [2007-07-02 5:57]
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Hi Pam.
You're right,this is really wonderful bird,but your capture here is wonderful too.Excellent sharp details in plumage and very good exposure,white color is beautiful.I like his very nice eye too.Great detailed portrait with very impressive POV,on dark BG he looks amazingly.My compliments and thank you for sharing.
Best greetings Milos.
Kia ora Pam,
Thank you for having the pelican that close in the best pov, my first contact in such closeness with it's face! and it's cute
good sharpness, colour and details
thanks for the notes
cheers
Tony
Hi Pam,
This is an excellent portrait of this pelican, I have never seen one up quite so close. Great sharpness and all the fine details can be seen so well. Looks great against the black background too.
cheers,
Debbie
Hi Pam,
I love this! Great composition and tight cropping! Fill flash exposure looks great. Colors, detail, and dark backround all look stunning. Great lens and extender combo...I use the same :) Great portrait!!!!
Scott
Hello Pam
Very intersting portrait of this Australian Pelican ,Great focusing ,compo and DOF,
Fantastic colors and sharpness,Superb shot, TFS
Good Luck
Fartash
Beautiful POV Pam. Just love the details because it is so close.
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 155 W: 2 N: 176]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/g-n-g.gif)
(741)