© 2004 David N. Kitler ...Science Art-Birds
Title: Pelican Up-Close
Species: Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)
Artist:
David N. Kitler
Image size: 10 1/2" x 10 1/2"
Media: acrylic on Baltic birch
Date: 2004
Location of the Painting: private collection
The artist notes, "One of the things
I enjoy about the Brown Pelican,
is to watch them gliding close to the water, with their
wing tips almost touching the surface. Another is to watch
them climb and stop midair, before turning and diving, beak
first, crashing into the ocean in pursuit of food. This
painting, however, is my attempt to bring viewers closer
to this species, which is endangered in many parts of North
America*, helping them appreciate the beautiful details
they could not see from afar."
Typically foraging in shallow water, not far offshore, these
husky birds catch fish mostly by surface plunging. They
perform these dives like clockwork: They usually face downwind
and away from the sun, pull their legs forward, bend their
wings at the wrist, rotate to the left (presumably to protect
their trachea and esophagus, located on the right side of
the neck) and then as their bill makes contact with the
water, force their wings and legs backward and their bill
toward the fish, opening it and expanding the pouch. If
they come up empty, they quickly open their bill and drain
the water, but if they get something, they keep their bill
shut, push it against their breast to drain the water, toss
their head and swallow. Pelicans can be seen fishing, albeit
usually at a distance, mostly early in the morning or in
the evening and as the tide comes in.
*In 1970, the Brown Pelican was listed as Endangered throughout
its range because of the usual suspects: pesticide and toxin
contamination--especially DDT, but also endrin, DDE, a
metabolite of DDT, dieldrin, and PCBs, among others. Oil
spills, collisions, entanglement in fishing lines, habitat
loss and degradation, human disturbance, and persecution
by fishermen, all added to population declines in
the U.S. and northwestern Mexico. Fifteen years later
it was taken off the Endangered list in Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, the Carolinas, and north along Atlantic coast.
Elsewhere it remains in jeopardy.