Sure, Cormorants often perch on
trees to roost and to nest (unlike pelicans), so poles is not a big stretch. Pelicans
are much bigger and their flight is less agile. Taking off from a height recoups
the same amount of energy that it took to get up there.
From: Birding-Aus
[ On Behalf Of Chris Brandis
Sent: Saturday,
19 January, 2019 7:28 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Pelicans perching on poles
Hi
Common in Wollongong and Ulladulla with Great Cormorants. Authorities have
put spikes on top of some light poles but the still manage to perch on the
sloping sides. Do not park under or lookup when passing a white washed area
under a light pole by the harbour. Taking off from a height would save energy.
Cheers
On 19/01/2019 6:25 pm, Philip Veerman wrote:
I went to Batemans Bay this week (NSW SE coast, down from
Canberra, for those not local). A thing that I noticed and usually have noticed
there, is that the Pelicans really like to perch on light poles there. It seems
to me a difficult and strange thing for such heavy birds to do. They can hardly
be looking for food from there. Given that even birds like Galahs sometimes
have difficulty perching on these rounded smooth steel structures and Pelicans
don’t have gripping feet and they would need to achieve almost zero speed
in flight to perch there. So is that a local habit or widespread? At San Remo
near Phillip Island, there is a bit of a tourist attraction of feeding of
Pelicans, but they fly in to the car park area, I did not notice them perching
on poles. Surprisingly a web search typing in “Pelicans perching on
poles” provided many pictures
https://www.google.com/search?q=pelicans+perching+on+poles&rlz=1C1GGRV_enAU751AU751&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizxozjivnfAhXUTX0KHe3BAdQQsAR6BAgAEAE&biw=1280&bih=882
but these are mostly stumps or piers not high light poles.
Many are Australian Pelicans and the American Brown Pelicans which I suspect is
not so big.
Philip
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