This is a brown pelican. The photo was taken on Bonaire, on the pebble beach between Pink Beach and dive site White Slave. The brown pelican is a robust bird that is predominantly silver-grey with brown colouring. The neck has a chestnut brown colour. The body length is between 100 and 152 centimetres. The wingspan is between 203 and 228 centimetres. The beak measures between 28.0 and 34.8 centimetres. Weighing between 2 and 5 kilograms, the pelican feeds on fish and bird eggs. Within the pelican family, the brown pelican is an oddity when it comes to hunting techniques. This is because it is the only pelican species that extracts prey fish from the water by means of a so-called flash dive. From a height of more than 10 metres, it plunges down, folding its wings backwards and bending its neck in an s-shape. The speed at which it hits the water surface can reach more than 95 kilometres per hour.
Pieter Smit was born in Arnhem and has lived on Bonaire since 2010. In his spare time, he enjoys taking photos, mainly of the Caribbean island's colourful birds... Read more…