Brown Pelican
Latin: Pelecanus occidentalis
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Upcoming Spring Survey on May 9, 2020
Pacific Brown Pelican. Photo: Carl Velie
A joint effort of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, state agencies, Conservacion de Islas and the Audubon network, the biannual Brown Pelican survey is helping us define the distribution and abundance of Brown Pelicans and track shifts in population structure. The survey dates will be May 9, 2020, and September 12, 2020.
The California Brown Pelican subspecies (Pelecanus occidentalis californicus) was removed from the Endangered Species list in 2009. The most recent population estimate is 70,680 breeding pairs. The majority of the subspecies breeds in the Gulf of California, Mexico; 15-20% of the population breeds at the U.S. Channel Islands. In recent years, Brown Pelican productivity at the Channel Islands and across the range has been poor, and key forage species including anchovy and sardine have collapsed raising questions and concerns about recruitment to the breeding population and ultimately the health of the subspecies.
Results
Select results are posted below.
If you would like to participate in this survey, contact these people in your geography:
Washington: Teri Anderson
tanderson@audubon.org
206-652-2444
Oregon: Joe Liebezeit
jliebezeit@audubonportland.org
971-222-6121
California: Anna Weinstein
aweinstein@audubon.org
415-644-4613
Mexico: Yuliana Bedolla
yuliana.bedolla@islas.org.mx
To participate in the brown pelican survey in Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, follow these instructions.
The goal is to initiate a biannual citizen science-based survey to help understand the abundance and distribution of Brown Pelicans in California, Oregon, and Washington. This survey will complement a 47-year time series of productivity monitoring data at the U.S. Channel Islands and a shorter, but also robust, data set in Mexico.
California is a global biodiversity hotspots, with one of the greatest concentrations of living species on Earth.
The Brown Pelican is one of California's most distinctive birds, and it very nearly disappeared altogether.
Please report any birds with bands to International Bird Rescue
Know other Brown Pelican lovers? We need your help to recruit more Brown Pelican surveryers.
From US Department of the Interior Facebook page:
On March 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt established the first wildlife refuge on Pelican Island in Florida. Created to protect bird species that had been hunted to the brink of extinction, this first refuge led to the National Wildlife Refuge System that now includes over 560 refuges across the country. Though the brown pelican has recovered, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge continues to protect 14 other threatened and endangered species.
Audubon California is joining up with several other agencies, including the USFWS to complete a citizen science survey of the California Brown Pelican on May 7. Save the date!
California is a global biodiversity hotspots, with one of the greatest concentrations of living species on Earth.
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