{"id":4754,"date":"2012-04-09T04:00:25","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=4754"},"modified":"2026-04-18T06:10:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:10:06","slug":"adult-brown-pelican-in-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/04\/09\/adult-brown-pelican-in-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult Brown Pelican In Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Adult\u00a0Adult Brown Pelican in flight \u2013 Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown Pelicans\u00a0(Pelecanus occidentalis<\/em>) were common year round along the Gulf coast when I lived in Florida. I would see them floating in the water, resting on sandbars and beaches, diving for prey and in flight.<\/p>\n

This adult Brown Pelican is in breeding plumage as indicated by the orange tipped bill. What you can not see because of the wing and neck position is the dark plumage along the backside of the neck.\u00a0 I photographed this bird on the west coast of Florida as it flew past me over the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Brown Pelican photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) were common year round along the Gulf coast when I lived in Florida. I would see them floating in the water, resting on sandbars and beaches, diving for prey and in flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,25,704,2000],"tags":[4004,4053,3994,5229,5132,4052,4122,173,4077,4158,4,706],"class_list":["post-4754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brown-pelicans","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-adult","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-brown-pelican","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-gulf-coast","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-pelecanus-occidentalis","tag-pelican","tag-pelicans"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/brown-pelican-flight-mia-mcpherson-8600.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1eG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7576,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/02\/20\/brown-pelicans-on-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":4754,"position":0},"title":"Brown Pelicans on the Gulf of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The forecast is calling for snow today and there is already a heavy cloud cover so looked back through my files and found some Brown Pelican images taken on a warm February morning in Florida to post today.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brown Pelicans on the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-breeding-mia-mcpherson-6017.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15705,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/08\/25\/brown-pelicans-flying-into-the-sunset-and-floating-on-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":4754,"position":1},"title":"Brown Pelicans flying into the sunset and floating on the Gulf of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I worked up two older Brown Pelican images to share this morning taken at Fort De Soto in 2009 and 2008.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brown Pelican flying into the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/brown-pelican-sunset-florida-mia-mcpherson-7206.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/brown-pelican-sunset-florida-mia-mcpherson-7206.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/brown-pelican-sunset-florida-mia-mcpherson-7206.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/brown-pelican-sunset-florida-mia-mcpherson-7206.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15219,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/06\/16\/brown-pelican-double-decker\/","url_meta":{"origin":4754,"position":2},"title":"Brown Pelican Double-decker","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Monday and I didn't have any idea what to post this morning so I opted to present this image of two Brown Pelicans flying double-decker style over the Gulf of Mexico.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brown Pelican Double-Decker, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelicans-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3671.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelicans-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3671.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelicans-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3671.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelicans-flight-florida-mia-mcpherson-3671.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15273,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/06\/25\/six-years-ago-today-pelicans-godwits-and-dowitchers\/","url_meta":{"origin":4754,"position":3},"title":"Six Years Ago Today – Pelicans, Godwits And Dowitchers","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Six years ago today I was sand crawling on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico at Fort De Soto's north beach photographing pelicans, godwits and dowitchers plus other birds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Short-billed Dowitcher feeding on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/short-billed-dowitcher-feeding-mia-mcpherson-4539.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/short-billed-dowitcher-feeding-mia-mcpherson-4539.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/short-billed-dowitcher-feeding-mia-mcpherson-4539.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/short-billed-dowitcher-feeding-mia-mcpherson-4539.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14546,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/03\/11\/juvenile-brown-pelican-gliding-over-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":4754,"position":4},"title":"Juvenile Brown Pelican gliding over the Gulf of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In Florida it was not uncommon for me to see Brown Pelicans gliding just barely above the surface of the Gulf of Mexico like the juvenile shown in my image.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Brown Pelican gliding over the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/brown-pelican-juvenile-gliding-mia-mcpherson-9129.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/brown-pelican-juvenile-gliding-mia-mcpherson-9129.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/brown-pelican-juvenile-gliding-mia-mcpherson-9129.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/brown-pelican-juvenile-gliding-mia-mcpherson-9129.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9927,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/10\/21\/juvenile-brown-pelican-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":4754,"position":5},"title":"Juvenile Brown Pelican In Flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"After posting an image of a American White Pelican lifting off two days ago I thought I should post an photo of a Brown Pelican today for comparison.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Brown Pelican in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-juvenile-flying-mia-mcpherson-2853.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-juvenile-flying-mia-mcpherson-2853.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/brown-pelican-juvenile-flying-mia-mcpherson-2853.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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