What is a pelican's pouch really for, and which island is named for the bird? Each pelican trivia question here comes with four choices, in five rounds from fossils to flags.
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Five rounds, from pelekan to the Golden Hind
Names, kin and kinds finds the shoebill in the family and a pelican in the Egyptian desert. Bill, pouch and plumage asks why the tongue is tiny. Fishing and flying rides a thermal and skims in ground effect. Colonies, nests and chicks warms eggs on the feet. Places, ships and symbols sails with Drake and lands on Alcatraz.
For a beach house or a birding weekend
Whichever of the four answers you tap, the card shows whether it was the one, gives its reason and names the source. Sets are ten long. Pick Scored round to go through twenty before the marks appear.
Questions and answers
What does a pelican use its pouch for?
To scoop up prey and to let the water drain away before the catch is swallowed, and sometimes to catch rainwater. Contrary to popular folklore, food is not stored in the pouch.
How big is a pelican?
The Dalmatian pelican is believed to be the largest species and the brown pelican is the smallest. Large male Australian pelicans have the longest bill of any bird, up to half a meter.
Where do pelicans live?
On every continent except Antarctica, mostly in warm regions, along coasts and on inland waters. There are none in the polar regions, on the deep ocean or in the interior of South America.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Pelican, linked under every question. Population figures, culling and pollution counts, and the pelican in the symbolism of living faiths are left out.
How many living species of pelican are there?Answer: Eight. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
In classical times, the Greek word for the pelican was also applied to which other bird?Answer: The woodpecker. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
In which country was Eopelecanus, an early pelican about 36 million years old, excavated?Answer: Egypt. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
The name pelican goes back to an Ancient Greek word with which meaning?Answer: Axe. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Once grouped with cormorants and gannets, pelicans are most closely related to the hamerkop and which other bird?Answer: The shoebill. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What do Early Miocene pelican fossils from Luberon in France show about the beak?Answer: It was nearly identical to that of pelicans today. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Where are pelicans thought to have evolved before spreading to the Americas?Answer: In the Old World. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which French polymath introduced the family name of the pelicans in 1815?Answer: Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which is the smallest species of pelican?Answer: The brown pelican. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which of these birds now shares the order Pelecaniformes with the pelicans?Answer: The herons. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which pelican is believed to be the largest?Answer: The Dalmatian pelican. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which pelican's bill, up to half a meter long in large males, is the longest of any bird?Answer: The Australian pelican. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Show all 58 questions (46 more)
Bill, pouch and plumage 13
A pelican's wing has an unusually large number of secondary flight feathers. How many?Answer: 30 to 35. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Before breeding, which color does the throat pouch of the Peruvian pelican turn?Answer: Blue. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Besides fish, what do pelicans sometimes catch in the pouch?Answer: Rainwater. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
How does a pelican carry waterproofing oil from its preen gland to its plumage?Answer: On the back of its head. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Most pelicans have pale plumage. Which two species are the exceptions?Answer: The brown and Peruvian pelicans. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What does a newly hatched pelican chick look like?Answer: Naked and pink. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What happens to the bill, pouch and bare facial skin of every pelican before the breeding season?Answer: They become brightly colored. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What is at the end of a pelican's upper bill?Answer: A downcurved hook. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What is the pouch attached to a pelican's lower bill called?Answer: The gular pouch. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What makes a pelican light for its bulk and lets it float high in the water?Answer: Air pockets in its skeleton and beneath its skin. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What may the air sacs under a pelican's skin do when it dives from flight into water?Answer: Cushion the impact. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which pelican grows a prominent knob on its bill that is shed once the eggs are laid?Answer: The American white pelican. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Why is a pelican's tongue tiny?Answer: So that it does not hinder the swallowing of large fish. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Fishing and flying 11
After tossing a large fish into the air, how does a pelican swallow it?Answer: Head-first. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Contrary to popular folklore, what is a pelican's throat pouch not used for?Answer: Storing food. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
In which basin of arid inland Australia do pelicans breed in very large numbers when rare floods fill the salt lakes?Answer: The Lake Eyre basin. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Near the shore, how do white pelicans drive small fish into the shallows?Answer: By forming a line and beating their wings on the water. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Pelicans skim low over water to save energy. What is the phenomenon they use called?Answer: Ground effect. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
To what height do pelicans soar on thermals?Answer: 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) or more. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What does the diet of pelicans usually consist of?Answer: Fish. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What lets a pelican hold its wings rigidly level for gliding and soaring?Answer: A fibrous layer deep in the breast muscles. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which bird will sometimes stand on a pelican's head and grab a fish from its open bill?Answer: A gull. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
White pelicans are seen some 600 miles from the nearest coast at which lake in Utah?Answer: The Great Salt Lake. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
With which birds may Dalmatian pelicans cooperate when they fish?Answer: Great cormorants. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Colonies, nests and chicks 10
Adult pelicans are generally silent away from the colony. What sound do they make there?Answer: Grunts. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
After about a week, how do pelican chicks feed?Answer: By putting their heads into their parents' pouches. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
From about 25 days old, the young of ground-nesting pelicans gather in groups called what?Answer: Pods. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
How do pelicans incubate their eggs?Answer: On top of or below their feet. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
How does a male of the tree-nesting pelicans carry nesting material?Answer: Crosswise in the bill. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
How long after hatching do young pelicans fledge?Answer: Ten to 12 weeks. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
How long do pelicans live in the wild?Answer: 15 to 25 years. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What is the noisy fit that a pelican chick may go into around feeding time likened to?Answer: A tantrum. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
What is the usual clutch of a pelican?Answer: One to three eggs. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Where do the four white-plumaged species of pelican tend to nest?Answer: On the ground. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Places, ships and symbols 12
A Dalmatian pelican appears on the 1 lek coin, issued in 1996, of which country?Answer: Albania. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
The brown pelican is the national bird of Barbados, Sint Maarten and which other Caribbean country?Answer: Saint Kitts and Nevis. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
The great white pelican is the national bird of which country?Answer: Romania. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
In Ancient Egypt the pelican was a protective symbol against which animals?Answer: Snakes. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
The largest colony of the Dalmatian pelican is at Small Prespa Lake in which country?Answer: Greece. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
The pelican spiders are named for which pelican-like features?Answer: Long jaws and necks. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
The Spanish word alcatraz comes from an Arabic term, likened to the pelican's pouch, for what?Answer: A water-carrying vessel. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which English queen is shown in the painting of about 1573 known as the Pelican Portrait?Answer: Elizabeth I. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which famous ship of Sir Francis Drake was at first called the Pelican?Answer: The Golden Hind. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which island was given its name by the Spanish because of the large numbers of brown pelicans nesting there?Answer: Alcatraz Island. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Which other seabird's English name comes from a corruption of the Spanish word alcatraz?Answer: The albatross. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
Who composed the popular limerick about the pelican in 1910?Answer: Dixon Lanier Merritt. Source: Wikipedia: Pelican
How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Pelican. On October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in that article before the question was kept. Left out on purpose: population estimates and conservation listings, culling, pollution and poisoning counts, parasites and disease, what happens between nestlings, mating, the pelican in the symbolism of living faiths, and company, team and college emblems. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the animal, hard will stump most tables. Unofficial, and not advice on keeping, feeding or approaching an animal. Licence: own work