lenka wrote:I couldnt see a pelican only North America. I wondered why it is called pelican nebula? I took these names serious and now I see:) Pelican image fits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelican wrote:
<<A pelican, derived from the Greek word pelekys (meaning “axe” and applied to birds that cut wood with their bills or beaks), is a large water bird with a large throat pouch, belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae. The largest pelican is believed to be the Dalmatian Pelican (P. crispus), at up to 15 kg, 183 cm long, with a maximum wingspan of 3 metres. The Australian Pelican has the longest bill of any bird.
Along with the darters, cormorants, gannets, boobies, frigatebirds, and tropicbirds, pelicans make up the order Pelecaniformes. Modern pelicans, of which there are eight species, are found on all continents except Antarctica. Birds of inland and coastal waters, they are absent from polar regions, the deep ocean, oceanic islands, and inland South America.
From the fossil record it is known that pelicans have been around for over 30 million years, the earliest fossil Pelecanus being found in Oligocene deposits in France. A prehistoric genus has been named Miopelecanus, while Protopelicanus may be a pelicanid or pelecaniform – or a similar aquatic bird such as a pseudotooth bird (Pelagornithidae). The supposed Miocene pelican Liptornis from Argentina is a nomen dubium, being based on hitherto indeterminable fragments.
The diet of a Pelican usually consists of fish, but they also eat amphibians, crustaceans and on some occasions, smaller birds. They often catch fish by expanding the throat pouch. Then they must drain the pouch above the surface before they can swallow. This operation takes up to a minute, during which time other seabirds are particularly likely to steal the fish. Pelicans in their turn sometimes pirate prey from other seabirds. The white pelicans often fish in groups. They will form a line to chase schools of small fish into shallow water, and then scoop them up. Large fish are caught with the bill-tip, then tossed up in the air to be caught and slid into the gullet head first. The Brown Pelican of North America usually plunge-dives for its prey.
In medieval Europe, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood when no other food was available. Likewise a folktale from India says that a pelican killed her young by rough treatment but was then so contrite that she resurrected them with her own blood. These legends may have arisen because pelicans look as if they are stabbing themselves as they often press their bill into their chest to fully empty their pouch. The pelican is used on the Louisiana state flag and Louisiana state seal, as the Brown pelican is the Louisiana state bird.>>
[quote="lenka"]I couldnt see a pelican only North America. I wondered why it is called pelican nebula? I took these names serious and now I see:) Pelican image fits.[/quote]
[float=right][img]http://inventorspot.com/files/images/sg_pelican_xl.preview.jpg[/img][/float]
[img3="[size=150][color=#0000FF]I see at least 2 different sized pelicans along
with one distinctly full pelican throat pouch[/color][/size]"]http://mm04.nasaimages.org/MediaManager/srvr?mediafile=/Size4/NVA2-4-NA/7245/PelicanNebula1_shahar_f.jpg&userid=1&username=admin&resolution=4&servertype=JVA&cid=4&iid=NVA2&vcid=NA&usergroup=NASA_Astronomy_Picture_of_the_Day_Collecti-4-Admin&profileid=16[/img3]
[quote=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelican"]
[float=right][img3="hop"]http://www.epa.gov/gmpo/pubinfo/images/gom-pelican-sunset-large.jpg[/img3][/float]<<A pelican, derived from the Greek word pelekys (meaning “axe” and applied to birds that cut wood with their bills or beaks), is a large water bird with a large throat pouch, belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae. The largest pelican is believed to be the Dalmatian Pelican (P. crispus), at up to 15 kg, 183 cm long, with a maximum wingspan of 3 metres. The Australian Pelican has the longest bill of any bird.
Along with the darters, cormorants, gannets, boobies, frigatebirds, and tropicbirds, pelicans make up the order Pelecaniformes. Modern pelicans, of which there are eight species, are found on all continents except Antarctica. Birds of inland and coastal waters, they are absent from polar regions, the deep ocean, oceanic islands, and inland South America.
From the fossil record it is known that pelicans have been around for over 30 million years, the earliest fossil Pelecanus being found in Oligocene deposits in France. A prehistoric genus has been named Miopelecanus, while Protopelicanus may be a pelicanid or pelecaniform – or a similar aquatic bird such as a pseudotooth bird (Pelagornithidae). The supposed Miocene pelican Liptornis from Argentina is a nomen dubium, being based on hitherto indeterminable fragments.
The diet of a Pelican usually consists of fish, but they also eat amphibians, crustaceans and on some occasions, smaller birds. They often catch fish by expanding the throat pouch. Then they must drain the pouch above the surface before they can swallow. This operation takes up to a minute, during which time other seabirds are particularly likely to steal the fish. Pelicans in their turn sometimes pirate prey from other seabirds. The white pelicans often fish in groups. They will form a line to chase schools of small fish into shallow water, and then scoop them up. Large fish are caught with the bill-tip, then tossed up in the air to be caught and slid into the gullet head first. The Brown Pelican of North America usually plunge-dives for its prey.
In medieval Europe, the pelican was thought to be particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing her own blood when no other food was available. Likewise a folktale from India says that a pelican killed her young by rough treatment but was then so contrite that she resurrected them with her own blood. These legends may have arisen because pelicans look as if they are stabbing themselves as they often press their bill into their chest to fully empty their pouch. The pelican is used on the Louisiana state flag and Louisiana state seal, as the Brown pelican is the Louisiana state bird.>>[/quote]