Form and function

Distinguishing characteristics

Few generalizations can be made about the gross morphology of the pelecaniforms, since their external form reflects the diversity of their adaptations. In the larger and more aerial species, the skeleton is extensively pneumatized: nearly all the bones contain air sacs that are connected with the respiratory system. In the frigate birds, pelicans, and boobies, the major limb bones are no more than thin-walled hollow tubes with some internal struts. Pneumatization is least developed in anhingas, which need to have a high specific gravity to remain underwater while motionless.

Those pelecaniforms that plunge into the water from a height (boobies, tropic birds, and the brown pelican) have a system of air sacs under the skin. These air sacs, connected with the lungs, form a spongy mattress that presumably protects the bird as it strikes the water. The appearance of this structure in species of pelicans that do not plunge suggests that the buoyancy it confers may be advantageous in itself.

The reduction of the external nostrils in most pelecaniforms is probably also connected with diving and swimming underwater. The closure, complete in boobies and in adult cormorants and anhingas, is only partial in frigate birds and pelicans; the nostrils are developed normally in tropic birds. The reduction of the nostrils in the aerial Fregatae as well as in the highly aquatic Pelecani suggests (as does the structure of the foot) that the Fregatae originated from a more aquatic stock. In the birds with nonfunctional nostrils, air enters the mouth cavity directly from the outside and then reaches the lungs in the normal way via the glottis—that is, the muscular opening to the windpipe—at the base of the tongue. In boobies and cormorants entry of air to the mouth when the bill is closed is by means of secondary external nostrils. These are slitlike openings at the angle of the mouth on each side where a horny flap (jugal operculum) at the base of the upper mandible overlaps the lower mandible.

Tropic birds, pelicans, and boobies have water-repellent plumage and are very buoyant. They swim high in the water and can reach significant depths only by acquiring momentum during aerial dives; their return to the surface is rapid. Frigate birds have wettable plumage, cannot swim or dive, and quickly become waterlogged if they alight on the water. In cormorants and anhingas the large contour feathers are wettable and trap little air when the birds are swimming underwater; this keeps buoyancy low in these birds and enables them to submerge from the surface without benefit of an aerial dive. The compressible but dense body plumage remains dry near the skin, at least in many species. The hind limbs of anhingas, which are not specialized for fast swimming, are relatively efficient for climbing and perching. Anhingas do not normally take flight from the water but climb out and dry their wings in a characteristic spread-wing posture that is also commonly used by cormorants. Once dry, anhingas show highly maneuverable flight and can also soar well, in contrast to the cormorants, which have a higher wing loading. Many species of pelecaniforms habitually spread their wings in “sun-bathing” postures, even when dry. The function of this behaviour is not well understood.

Physiological adaptations

Most pelecaniform birds nest in exposed situations, and special adaptations are necessary to prevent overheating of adults and young, particularly in tropical areas. The masked booby in the Galapagos, for example, stands with its back to the sun, thus shading its feet and naked throat pouch and permitting loss of heat by convection and conduction. It elevates its scapular (shoulder) feathers and droops its wings, allowing maximum exposure of shaded feather areas, and it exhibits sustained fluttering of the throat pouch. Throat fluttering, which permits evaporative cooling with minimum expenditure of energy, is used under heat stress by all the pelecaniforms except the tropic birds, which do not have a naked throat pouch. The rate of throat fluttering remains roughly constant under increasing heat stress but becomes continuous instead of intermittent, and there are increases in its amplitude and in the throat area involved. All species make use of panting to increase evaporative cooling. Under heat stress the rate of breathing increases with increasing body temperature, and, when it reaches a maximum, the amplitude of breathing increases.

Although even the newly hatched young of certain species are capable of throat fluttering, they cannot regulate their temperature when left in the sun, until they have acquired down and in some species not until they are several weeks old. Young tropic birds provide an exception: they have dense down at hatching and are sometimes left alone for long periods within a few days of hatching; small chicks are capable of regulating their body temperature by panting, even in the sun, but most nests are in the shade.

Evaporative cooling requires much water, which is obtained from the food and probably also by drinking seawater. The resulting high intake of salt necessitates special adaptations for elimination of the excess. Marine birds have highly developed salt excretory glands, the lateral nasal glands, which function when the amount of salt taken into the body is more than the kidneys can deal with. The glands secrete a concentrated solution of sodium chloride, which flows through ducts to the nasal cavity. In most sea birds, including the tropic birds, it then flows out through the nostrils and may drip or be shaken off the tip of the bill. In boobies and cormorants, in which the nostrils are closed, the solution trickles from the internal nares in the roof of the mouth and out at the end of the bill. In some species of cormorants that occur in both marine and freshwater habitats, the salt gland is relatively larger in individuals from marine habitats, presumably reflecting higher salt intake.