I took this picture of a pelican coming in for a landing one morning on Kangaroo Island, in South Australia. The cook from our hotel had walked across the road to the beach with a small bucket of fish scraps, as he apparently does most mornings, and the usual crowd of gulls and pelicans were there to greet him and get a free meal. The way the sunlight is hitting the bird’s wings almost makes it look like a painting, but that’s just how it came out of the camera.
Big bill is not this bird’s name; it describes his most notable feature. The Australian Pelican has the largest bill of any bird, up to about 20 inches. They look bigger than white pelicans we see in the U.S. and it’s all because of the bill. Their bodies are actually pretty similar in size. This picture does’t show you how big the bill is, but I love this one because I don’t get many good shots of birds in flight. But I’m working on it.