Pelican swallows pigeon in park

Photographer Cathal McNaughton is officially the luckiest bastard in the world today:

Families and tourists in a London park were left shocked when a pelican picked up and swallowed a pigeon.

The unusual wildlife spectacle in St James's Park was caught on camera by photographer Cathal McNaughton.

He said the Eastern White pelican had the unfortunate pigeon in its beak for more than 20 minutes before swallowing it whole.

An RSPB spokesman said: "It is almost unheard of for a pelican to eat a bird. Their diet should be strictly fish."

[BBC]

Photographers, tell me you aren't envious of this capture:

I just hope the pelican had all its shots. It would be a shame to go from poisoning pigeons in the park to poisoning pelicans.

Comments

[Cranky Observer]

Do those pelicans live in the US? Can we order some for my city?

Cranky

[Mandos]

OK, that pigeon has a nonchalant kind of look. Why isn't there a struggle?

[Njorl]

"OK, that pigeon has a nonchalant kind of look. Why isn't there a struggle?"

Well, even if it manages to escape, it'll still be a pigeon.

When I was growing up, we had a hoard of pigeons in our neighborhood. A hawk took to hunting them. At first, they would all scatter after the hawk struck - usually a good 2 seconds after, given their lightening-like reflexes. After a while, they didn't bother. The hawk flew in, took one, and they all just sat there on the telephone wire.

There really wasn't any point to reacting. They couldn't escape. There was no danger to their continued existance as a group. As a strategy, it was better to conserve energy and just sit there and let the predator take one.

The hawk was gone in less than a month. I always figured the pigeons poisoned it.

[Rob G]

I'm rather fond of pigeons. More so since I saw one give a gull a left hook a couple of years ago (the gull was muscling in on the breadcrumbs action). If I'd been there, I would have certainly tried to liberate it. Poor thing.

[Bob Tetrault]

Feathered rats!

[Chuck B]

I am a photographer and I am jealous as hell. Lucky bastard.

[cfrost]

The Eastern, aka great white, pelican Pelecanus onocrotalus is huge even for a pelican, so a pigeon might be just about the right size to eat. It is unusual, but not unheard of for them to eat other birds.

Brown pelicans Pelecanus occidentalis on the Pacific coast are sometimes pestered by Heerman’s gulls Larus heermani who rob food right out of the pelican’s bills. Uniquely for pelicans, brown pelicans dive for their prey and upon surfacing, must wait helplessly while they pump a couple gallons of water from their bill pouches before they can swallow the fish they’ve caught. While the pelicans are tied up, the gulls tip right into the pelican’s pouch with as much gull in as out. I’ve never seen a gull get swallowed, but then they’re bigger than pigeons. Heerman’s gulls are such handsome birds, gray with white heads and crimson beaks, that one can almost excuse their impudence, which extends even to perching atop the poor pelican’s heads.

[pseudonymous in nc]

This is apparently not the first time. Seems as if one of the five park pelicans recently discovered a taste for pigeon. The others in that video really don't look too impressed with him.

[cfrost]

pseudonymous - That's some hella work getting a bite of undercooked squab down!

Lindsay - I'm thrilled to see there are still some Tom Lehrer fans around.

[none]

Also cool to see Tom Lehrer quoted but that picture appears to be fake.

[Granny O'Doul]

It looks like no one has yet quoted Dixon Lanier Merritt, so...

"A wonderful bird is the Pelican,
His bill can hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week;
But I'm damned if I see how the helican."

[The Phantom]

--that picture appears to be fake--

Why do you say that? It doesn't look fake to me, and there were witnesses

[none]

There don't seem to be witnesses to that photo being taken and it looks like it was done with Photoshop. It seems to be true that a pelican ate a pigeon at that zoo, but the photo appears concocted afterwards.

Here's supposedly some video:

http://www.uneasysilence.com/archive/2006/10/7890

[The Phantom]

none

Not to give you a hard time, but who said that there were no witnesses?

From my (untrained) eye, the image does not look fake at all.

[cfrost]

Granny O'Doul - It's wonderful how if you live long enough, more and more of the puzzle pieces eventually turn up and fit together. My grandfather, dead now forty years, told me that limerick and now I know where it came from. Thank you.

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[pseudonymous in nc]

it looks like it was done with Photoshop.

You'll need to do better than that.

And it's not a zoo.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

When I was growing up, we had a hoard of pigeons in our neighborhood. A hawk took to hunting them. At first, they would all scatter after the hawk struck - usually a good 2 seconds after, given their lightening-like reflexes. After a while, they didn't bother. The hawk flew in, took one, and they all just sat there on the telephone wire.

There really wasn't any point to reacting. They couldn't escape. There was no danger to their continued existance as a group. As a strategy, it was better to conserve energy and just sit there and let the predator take one.

Sounds like "The Lottery." Is "hoard" the name for a group of pigeons?

Saw the video of the pelican eating the pigeon on BBC World News tonight. Katty Kay, laughing in spite of her horror, said: "that's _terrible!_", just as I was thinking it.