Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Pteradactyls or Pelicans?

Whenever we come to the shore, the Pelicans are my favorite birds. 
I could sit all day watching them glide in formation. Have you ever noticed they they use synchronized flying? The front bird raises his wings, followed by the second, then the third. And how do they fly so close to the waves without getting their wingtips wet?
If you asked, I would discuss their feeding habits with confidence. They dive into the water to catch fish, then sit there for a bit to swallow, right? Well, this trip I've learned something else. We saw one just sitting on the water...
...Then it lifted a bit and I saw a fish in its mouth! Look closely and you can see it.
Another wing flap, tip the head up, and watch that fish slide down the gullet! Pretty cool!
Sometimes, you can look at them in flight, and see a kinship to pteradactyls. After all, they say birds are descended from dinosaurs!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Amazing capture here! I initially noticed your 2 shots of the "pelican eating fish"". So can you see that fish (it looks pretty big/formidable!)) desperately wriggling about inside its pouch?? Does the bird swallow it down wriggling all the way as well?!

-Kyle

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Anonymous said...

Nice photos but pteradactyls were not dinosaurs rather they were related to more modern reptiles like lizards, dinosaurs evolved into birds, pelicans are birds, the reason for the similarity is the idea of recurrent evolution for example a Therizinosaurus and a giant sloth look the same and have the same functions and attributes but they are not related, one is a mammal and one is a dinosaur