Do pelicans eat birds?

Feeding. The diet of pelicans usually consists of fish, but occasionally amphibians, turtles, crustaceans, insects, birds and mammals are also eaten. The size of the preferred prey fish varies depending on pelican species and location. read more

About 14,000 pelicans, including 7500 American white pelicans, perished from botulism after eating fish from the Salton Sea in 1990. In 1991, abnormal numbers of brown pelicans and Brandt's cormorants died at Santa Cruz, California, when their food fish (anchovies) were contaminated with neurotoxic domoic acid, produced by the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia. read more

The vast majority of the pelican diet is made up of fish and a pelican is capable of eating a fish up to 30 cm (1 ft) in length. They will also eat amphibians (such as frogs), turtles, crustaceans and even other small birds and bird eggs. read more