I find Pelicans odd-looking but interesting birds. These are Brown Pelican, the state bird of Louisiana. Brown pelicans are listed as threatened, though they have been making a comeback since the banning of DDT in the USA. They mate for life and both sexes incubate the eggs and feed their young. They're rarely seen inland (except around California's Salton Sea).
These photos were taken at Magdalena Bay in Baja California. We were loading our boats to go to our remote camp across the bay where we spent half a week watching gray whales (fantastic experience! -- read more about there here).
Like many wild animals, pelicans get lazy and hang around people if you feed them. I presume this bunch in the photo was fed by fishermen. They certainly had no fear of us, although they were afraid of a dog that made a dash at them. The featured photo above is of the flock taking off, eluding the barking canine! The photo below a few minutes later when they landed again and were settling in.
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