50 free Pelican trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Pelicans are among the heaviest birds that fly, and this quiz covers the whole family: the eight species and their split between white ground-nesters and brown tree-nesters, the Dalmatian giant, the Australian pelican's record-breaking bill, the brown pelican's head-first dives, and the air sacs under the skin that let a 15-kg bird bob like a cork. It also busts the myths: the pouch is a net, not a larder, and it works better as a radiator than a shopping bag. Then the birds and people: the DDT crash that put the brown pelican on the endangered list in 1970 and the recovery that got it off in 2009, the Deepwater Horizon toll, Australian pelicans breeding by the tens of thousands on flooded desert lakes, and gulls that stand on pelicans' heads to steal fish. The last section is culture: the 'pelican in her piety' that Christian writers took from the Physiologus, Elizabeth I's use of the emblem, Corpus Christi colleges, Louisiana's flag, the Pelikan pen logo, three Caribbean national birds and the Egyptian goddess Henet. Easy questions ask what the pouch is for and what pelicans eat; hard ones want incubation periods, fossil ages and hymn writers. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on pelicans and the main species, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Our Birds quiz goes wider.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is a pelican's throat pouch actually used for?
Catching prey and draining off water
Contrary to folklore, food is never stored in it; the bird presses the pouch to its chest to empty it.
Q 02How many living species of pelican are there?
Eight
Four white ground-nesters and four grey or brown tree-nesters, though DNA splits them into Old World and New World lines instead.
Q 03Which two pelican species are not predominantly pale?
The brown and Peruvian pelicans
Once thought to be one species, the two dark coastal divers are sometimes placed in their own subgenus, Leptopelecanus.
Q 04Pelicans' closest relatives turn out to be which two odd birds?
The shoebill and the hamerkop
Neither is a true stork, but they share the order Pelecaniformes with herons, ibises and spoonbills.
Q 05The name 'pelican' comes from a Greek word derived from 'pelekys', meaning what?
Axe
In classical times the same word was applied to the woodpecker as well.
Q 06A 36-million-year-old pelican ancestor, Eopelecanus aegyptiacus, was identified from a bone found where?
Wadi El Hitan, Egypt
The 'Valley of the Whales' fossil is a leg bone; French Miocene pelicans already had beaks identical to today's.
Q 07Which continent is the only one with no pelicans?
Antarctica
They also avoid polar seas, the open ocean, oceanic islands other than the Galápagos, and inland South America.
Q 08Which is the smallest of the eight species?
The brown
Small individuals can weigh under 3 kg with a wingspan as short as 1.83 metres.
Q 09Which is believed to be the largest of the eight species, at up to 15 kg with a 3-metre wingspan?
The Dalmatian
It is among the heaviest flying birds in the world; its biggest colony is on Small Prespa Lake between Greece and Albania.
Q 10Which bird has the longest bill of any living bird, up to half a metre?
The Australian pelican
Large males carry the record; the bird is also an eclectic scavenger that will take ducks and even small dogs.
Q 11Why are pelicans relatively light for their bulk and able to float so high in the water?
Air pockets in the skeleton and under the skin
A network of air sacs under the skin also cushions the impact when a brown pelican dives from height.
Q 12Pelican wings have an unusually large number of what?
Secondary flight feathers, 30 to 35
The long broad wings are built for soaring and gliding; a fibrous layer in the breast muscles locks them horizontal.
Q 13The Californian brown pelican's throat pouch turns which colour before breeding?
Bright red
Q 21After about a week, how do pelican chicks feed?
By putting their heads into the parent's pouch
Fed chicks may 'throw a tantrum', dragging themselves in circles and banging their heads before collapsing.
Q 22From about 25 days old, young ground-nesting pelicans gather in groups called what?
Pods or crèches
Up to 100 chicks crowd together, but each parent recognises and feeds only its own.
Q 23How long do pelicans usually live in the wild?
15 to 25 years
It fades to yellow once eggs are laid; the Peruvian pelican's pouch goes blue instead.
Q 14The American white pelican grows what on its bill in the breeding season?
A prominent knob
It is shed once the females have laid their eggs.
Q 15How do pelicans shed excess heat?
Gular flutter of the throat and pouch skin
With the bill open, the fluttering pouch works as an evaporative cooler.
Q 16Pelicans use thermals to soar to heights of how much when commuting to feeding grounds?
3,000 m or more
They can travel 150 km to feed, gliding and flapping in V formation.
Q 17Pelicans skimming low over water save energy through what phenomenon?
Ground effect
Air compressed between wing and water surface pushes back harder, cutting drag and adding lift.
Q 18How long does a pelican pair bond last?
A single breeding season, at the nest only
Mates are independent away from the nest; the white species court in noisy group chases that can be over in a day.
Q 19In arid inland Australia, pelicans breed opportunistically in colonies of up to how many pairs?
50,000
Rare floods fill the salt lakes of the Lake Eyre basin for a few months, and the birds arrive in their thousands.
Q 20How long is a pelican's incubation period?
30 to 36 days
Both parents sit with the eggs on or under their feet; hatching success can reach 95%, but usually only one chick survives sibling rivalry.
One captive bird reached 54; they mature at three or four and fledge at ten to twelve weeks.
Q 24Which species habitually plunge-dives head-first from as high as 10 to 20 metres?
The brown
Only the Peruvian pelican dives similarly, from lower; the others mostly feed while swimming and scooping.
Q 25Which three pelicans prefer to feed alone rather than in groups?
Dalmatian, pink-backed and spot-billed
Group fishers encircle shoals or drive them into the shallows; Dalmatians will even team up with great cormorants.
Q 26A gull will sometimes stand on a pelican's head and do what?
Peck it and steal a fish from its bill
Large fish are tossed in the air and swallowed head-first, giving the thief a moment's chance.
Q 27Which species reportedly eats 'anything from insects and small crustaceans to ducks and small dogs'?
The Australian
It forages in landfill sites and takes carrion; great white pelicans have swallowed city pigeons in London.
Q 28The brown pelican was listed as endangered in the US in 1970 mainly because of what?
DDT pollution
Restrictions from 1972 let eggshells thicken again, and the species was delisted in 2009.
Q 29The brown pelican was removed from the US endangered list in which year?
2009
The Audubon Society now puts the global brown pelican population at about 300,000.
Q 30Over 300 pelicans imported from Florida to rebuild a Gulf state's flock died in 1975 from what pesticide?
Endrin
The 500 birds had been brought in to rebuild a population DDT had already wiped out.