Tranquil Pelican Aviary and Spa

July 22, 2008: IBRRC has a very large (100 feet long) pelican aviary and spa, which also serves as a flight cage. Because we have so many birds right now, we have moved some other birds into the peli aviary. All of them get along just fine.

At the far end are the two adult Double-crested Cormorants, who serve as role models for the baby cormorants which hatched in our incubator a few weeks ago. If you look very closely at the video, you'll see one of the black adult cormorants perched at the far end of the aviary.

We have baby and juvenile Western Gulls. They are gray-brown and will turn white when they are adults. There are quite a few juvenile Brown Pelicans. They made it from Baja California but are very underweight. When they gain weight and demonstrate good flying skills, we'll release them into a flock of other pelicans. Hopefully, they will learn to be better fishermen.

I filmed the clips around 6 PM, standing very quietly in one corner of the spa, so as not to disturb the birds. From this perspective, the two pools look small, but they are actually quite large. The birds seem to be enjoying themselves, preening, swimming, flying, eating, pooping.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• pelican
• aviary
• spa
• pool
• wildlife
• nature
• IBRRC
• gull
• chick
• rescue
• research
• hospital
• aquatic
• bird

[luizpigeon]

who loves animal is because love the life

[ACwithFT]

great video!

[Linzizzle18]

1:08 = SO CUTE!!!! :D

[anmoose]

Amazing the amount of rescue work you all are doing. And do I assume correctly that the intent is for all of these birds, IF they're able, to be eventually returned to the wild?

Moosie

[virus8u]

Cute!