Pelican Trivia
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49 free Pelican trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Sep 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 49 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
Catching prey and draining off water: the bird tips its bill down to let the water run out, then tosses its head back and swallows the fish at once, carrying nothing away.
Q 02A famous limerick says a pelican's bill can hold more than its what?
Belly
Belly: 'his bill will hold more than his belican' is no joke, because a full pouch takes two or three times what the stomach can, most of it water that has to be tipped out.
Q 03How do white pelicans hunting as a team usually trap their prey?
Herding fish into the shallows
Herding fish into the shallows: the birds swim in a line or a horseshoe, beating their wings on the water to drive the shoal ahead, then simply scoop up the trapped fish.
Q 04DNA studies show the pelicans' closest living relatives to be which pair of odd-looking birds?
Shoebill and hamerkop
Shoebill and hamerkop: pelicans were long classed with other seabirds that share their fully webbed feet, until DNA showed that kind of foot had evolved more than once.
Q 05The Greek for 'pelican' is linked to the word for 'axe' and to which other bird's name?
Woodpecker
Woodpecker: it hacks at trees like an axe, and the pelican may have been given a similar name for the shape of its own great bill.
Q 06A 30-million-year-old pelican fossil from France surprised scientists because which part was almost identical to a living bird's?
Its beak
Its beak: the fish-scooping bill already suited its job so well that tens of millions of years of evolution have barely altered it.
Q 07Which continent is the only one with no pelicans?
Antarctica
Antarctica: pelicans keep to warm and temperate waters, but not just the coast, since white pelicans nest on lakes far inland in both North America and Australia.
Q 08Which author wrote the 1992 legal thriller 'The Pelican Brief', filmed with Julia Roberts?
John Grisham
John Grisham: the 'brief' is a law student's theory that two judges were murdered to swing a court case over oil drilling in marshland where endangered pelicans nest.
Q 09Which bird has the longest bill of any living bird, up to half a metre?
The Australian pelican
The Australian pelican: a big male's bill reaches about half a metre, and the pouch slung beneath it doubles as a rain-catcher when the bird wants a drink.
Q 10Why do bulky pelicans float so high in the water?
Air pockets in the skeleton and under the skin
Air pockets in the skeleton and under the skin: they keep it riding high like a cork, and to stay dry it rubs its head on an oil gland near the tail and wipes the waterproofing over its feathers.
Q 11Where do normally silent adult pelicans turn noisy and start grunting?
At the breeding colony
At the breeding colony: there the adults grunt and the begging chicks keep up a constant din, yet away from the nest a pelican rarely utters more than a hiss.
Q 12The Californian brown pelican's throat pouch turns which colour before breeding?
Bright red
Bright red: only the part of the pouch nearest the throat flushes, and the colour drains away again as soon as the eggs are laid and the courting is over.
Q 13The American white pelican grows what on its bill in the breeding season?
A prominent knob
Q 21At a few weeks old, young ground-nesting pelicans gather in groups called what?
Pods or crèches
Pods or crèches: the chicks huddle together while both parents are away fishing, yet each returning adult still picks out and feeds only its own.
Q 22Studies of what pelicans eat find they usually take which fish?
Carp and mullet
Carp and mullet: fishermen have long blamed pelicans for thinning their catch, yet the birds usually take such 'rough' fish that people rarely want.
Q 23How does the brown pelican catch most of its fish?
Plunge-diving from the air
A prominent knob: the flat, horn-like plate stands up from the top of the bill through courtship and then simply drops off once the eggs have been laid.
Q 14How do pelicans shed excess heat?
Gular flutter of the throat and pouch skin
Gular flutter of the throat and pouch skin: with the bill held open, the rippling pouch lets moisture evaporate and carry heat away, turning the fishing net into a radiator.
Q 15Pelicans ride thermals on the way to their feeding grounds; about how high have they been recorded soaring?
About 3,000 m
About 3,000 m: by circling up on one thermal and gliding down to the next, a pelican can commute 150 km or more to feed while barely flapping its wings.
Q 16Pelicans skimming low over water save energy through what phenomenon?
Ground effect
Ground effect: air squeezed between the wings and the water gives extra lift and cuts drag, which is why lines of pelicans skim so close to the wave tops.
Q 17Swans famously pair for life, but how long does a pelican couple stay together?
A single breeding season
A single breeding season: even then the two are a couple only at the nest, flying off separately to feed, and each finds a new partner the following year.
Q 18Pelicans flock to breed at which outback salt lake when floods fill it?
Lake Eyre
Lake Eyre: the basin can lie dry for years, but when it fills the birds gather in their thousands, raise chicks on the sudden glut of fish, and move on as the water dries out again.
Q 19How do pelicans keep their eggs warm?
On their feet
On their feet: both parents take shifts, and the first chick out is so much bigger than the rest that it usually takes most of the food and is often the only one to survive.
Q 20After about a week, how do pelican chicks feed?
Reaching deep into a parent's bill
Reaching deep into a parent's bill: the adult opens wide and the chick pushes its whole head inside to pull out regurgitated fish, a routine both parents keep up for weeks.
Plunge-diving from the air: it spots a shoal from as high as 20 metres, folds back its wings and hits the water bill-first, surfacing moments later with a fish.
Q 24On some Greek lakes, pelicans let which diving birds do the work of driving fish up to the surface?
Cormorants
Cormorants: they dive deep and flush the shoal upwards, where the pelican, a bird that feeds only at the surface, is waiting to scoop the fish up.
Q 25Gulls sometimes land on pelicans' heads to do what?
Peck it and steal a fish from its bill
Peck it and steal a fish from its bill: the thief strikes just after a dive, while the pelican is still draining its pouch and cannot yet swallow.
Q 26In which London park, home to pelicans since the 1660s, was one photographed swallowing a live pigeon?
St James's Park
St James's Park: the first pelicans there were a gift from the Russian ambassador to Charles II, and their successors are still handed fish every afternoon, pigeons being strictly off the menu.
Q 27The brown pelican was listed as endangered in the US in 1970 mainly because of what?
DDT pollution
DDT pollution: the pesticide built up in the fish the birds ate and thinned their eggshells so badly that the eggs cracked under the weight of the sitting parents.
Q 28Which disaster hit brown pelicans months after they left the US endangered list?
Deepwater Horizon
Deepwater Horizon: the species came off the list in 2009 and the well blew out the next spring, fouling the mangrove islands where thousands of pelicans nested.
Q 29On British roads, what is a 'pelican crossing'?
A push-button pedestrian crossing
A push-button pedestrian crossing: the name squeezes 'pedestrian light controlled' into a bird, and the joke stuck, since later designs were christened puffin and toucan crossings.
Q 30What everyday hazard injures pelicans that beg for scraps around piers and harbours?
Fishing hooks and line
Fishing hooks and line: a snagged bird is often simply cut loose, and the trailing line then winds round its bill, wings or legs until it can no longer feed.