What is a baby pelican called?

Australian Pelicans, Mallacoota, Victoria

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking about Australian Birds, and showing some of my bird photos, at our local Mobilong Ladies Probus Club. There were just over 100 attentive women at the meeting, they all appeared to enjoy my presentation and they even laughed at my jokes!

One of them asked me a very difficult question, one I couldn’t answer: What is a baby pelican called?

Many birds and animals have specific names for their young, eg cygnets for swans, cubs for bears and kittens for cats. It seems however that no-one has got around to giving a special name to baby pelicans. So be it.

An extensive search online has revealed that one person calls them “toddlers”, an entirely appropriate name reflecting their waddling gait when quite young. This could also be just a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, and the site where it appeared is not at all authoritative in any way.

So I guess we’ll just have to make do with “chicks” or “nestlings” like the vast majority of birds.

Happy birding.