Cormorant vs Pelican for Kids
Cormorants and pelicans are both fish-eating waterbirds with webbing around all four toes, yet their fishing tools look completely different. Cormorants are sleek pursuit divers that chase fish underwater with their feet. Pelicans are much larger scoopers with long bills and expandable throat pouches. This family-level comparison uses the double-crested cormorant and brown pelican as familiar North American benchmarks while noting that only brown and Peruvian pelicans are regular plunge divers.
Cormorant
- Type: Bird
- Group: Family Phalacrocoracidae; double-crested cormorant benchmark: Nannopterum auritum
- Known for: Dark streamlined body, long kinked neck, thin hooked bill, low floating posture, four fully webbed toes, powerful foot-propelled dives, and wing-spreading after fishing
- Diet: Carnivore
- Special skill: Diving from the surface and kicking large totipalmate feet underwater to chase and grasp fish with a hook-tipped bill
Pelican
- Type: Bird
- Group: Family Pelecanidae; brown pelican benchmark: Pelecanus occidentalis
- Known for: Huge body, extremely long bill, expandable throat pouch, broad wings, short legs, four fully webbed toes, colonial nesting, and fish scooping
- Diet: Carnivore
- Special skill: Using an elastic lower-bill pouch as a temporary scoop, draining water, and swallowing fish rather than carrying them around inside the pouch
Quick Answer
Quick answer: A cormorant is smaller, darker, and more streamlined, with a narrow hooked bill and strong feet for swimming after fish underwater. A pelican is much larger, with broad wings and an enormous bill pouch that briefly catches fish and water before the water drains away. Both eat fish, have all four toes joined by webbing, form nesting colonies, and care for chicks.
Cormorant vs Pelican: Quick Comparison
| Feature | Cormorant | Pelican |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Phalacrocoracidae, cormorants and shags | Pelecanidae, pelicans |
| Artwork benchmark | Double-crested cormorant, Nannopterum auritum | Brown pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis |
| Benchmark size | About 70–90 cm and 1.2–2.5 kg | About 100–137 cm and 2–5 kg |
| Bill | Long, narrow, and strongly hooked at the tip | Extremely long with an elastic lower-bill pouch |
| Swimming posture | Body sits low; dives and pursues fish underwater | Floats higher and normally captures fish from or above the surface |
| Feet | All four toes webbed; positioned to power underwater pursuit | All four toes webbed; broad feet steer and paddle |
| Feathers | Partially wettable outer plumage; often spreads wings after diving | More water-repellent plumage suited to floating and repeated surface contact |
| Fishing style | Dives from the surface, chases fish, and grips them with the bill | Scoops fish; brown and Peruvian pelicans also plunge from the air |
| Social life | Flocks and dense breeding colonies; foraging varies by species | Flocks, colonies, and sometimes coordinated group feeding |
| Standout adaptation | Low-buoyancy underwater pursuit | Expandable scoop-and-drain throat pouch |
How Are Cormorants and Pelicans Alike?
- Both are fish-eating waterbirds found around coasts, estuaries, lakes, rivers, or other large waters.
- Both have totipalmate feet, meaning webbing joins all four toes.
- Both can swim, fly, dive to some degree, and use their bills to capture slippery food.
- Both commonly rest, travel, or breed in colonies and flocks.
- Both lay eggs and feed dependent chicks at nests that should never be approached closely.
How Are Cormorants and Pelicans Different?
- Cormorants are smaller streamlined pursuit divers, while pelicans are much larger birds with very broad wings.
- A cormorant has a narrow hook-tipped bill; a pelican has an enormous bill with an expandable throat pouch.
- Cormorants chase fish underwater with foot-powered swimming, while pelicans usually scoop fish from the surface or plunge into shallow water in the brown and Peruvian species.
- Cormorant outer plumage is partly wettable and the birds often spread their wings after diving; pelicans are more buoyant surface swimmers.
- Pelicans drain water and swallow catches promptly rather than storing fish in the pouch; cormorants usually bring captured fish to the surface and swallow them.
Cormorant vs Pelican Showdown
Adaptation showdown: The pelican wins size because every living pelican is a large bird and the brown-pelican benchmark substantially outweighs and outspans a double-crested cormorant. Speed is a tie because flying, plunging, surface paddling, and underwater pursuit are not one comparable race. Strength is a tie between cormorant diving muscles and pelican bill, wing, and body power. Stealth is a tie because both may approach fish efficiently without being dedicated camouflage hunters. Social behaviour is a tie because both flock and breed colonially, with species and seasons changing group size. The cormorant wins swimming for sustained foot-powered underwater pursuit. The pelican wins the weirdest-adaptation prize for a flexible lower-bill pouch that scoops fish and water, drains the water, and can also flutter to help release heat.
Fun Cormorant vs Pelican Facts
A Pelican Pouch Is Not a Lunch Box
A pelican expands the skin between the long lower-jaw bones to capture fish and water. It drains the water and swallows the catch; fish are not carried around for long periods inside the pouch.
Only Two Pelicans Regularly Plunge
Brown pelicans and their close Peruvian relatives are the pelican family’s regular aerial plunge divers. Other pelican species usually scoop at the surface, sometimes working together to herd fish into shallows.
Cormorant Feet Become Propellers
A cormorant’s four toes are linked by webbing, and the large feet push water during underwater pursuit. Its body sits low and the narrow hook at the bill tip helps hold slippery fish.
Cormorant Feathers Do Two Jobs
Research on great cormorants found a wettable outer feather section above a more water-repellent inner section that can retain insulating air. Partial wetting reduces buoyancy without simply turning the whole bird into a soaked sponge.
The Pouch Can Help With Heat
A pelican can pulse or flutter the flexible throat pouch on a hot day. Air movement across the moist skin increases evaporative cooling, giving the fishing scoop a second job as part of the bird’s cooling system.
Cormorant vs Pelican Quiz
- Which bird is usually much larger? Answer: Pelican.
- Which bird chases fish underwater with powerful feet? Answer: Cormorant.
- Does a pelican store fish in its pouch for later? Answer: No. It drains water and swallows the catch.
- What does totipalmate mean? Answer: All four toes are joined by webbing.
- Which two pelicans are regular aerial plunge divers? Answer: Brown and Peruvian pelicans.
Cormorant vs Pelican FAQ
What is the easiest way to tell a cormorant from a pelican?
A pelican is much larger and has an extremely long bill with a hanging throat pouch. A cormorant is sleeker and darker with a thin hook-tipped bill and a low swimming posture.
Do cormorants and pelicans both dive?
Yes, but differently. Cormorants dive from the surface and pursue fish underwater. Brown and Peruvian pelicans plunge from the air; other pelicans mostly scoop at the surface.
Are cormorant feathers waterproof?
Their plumage is more complicated than simply waterproof or not. The outer part can wet while an inner structure retains air, and birds often spread their wings after diving.
Do pelicans carry fish in their pouch?
Not as a storage bag. They scoop fish and water, drain the water, and swallow the fish. Food carried to chicks is held farther back in the digestive tract.
Should people feed cormorants or pelicans?
No. Feeding changes behaviour and can expose birds to hooks, line, poor food, traffic, and crowding. Watch from a respectful distance and dispose of fishing line safely.
Animal Words to Know
- Gular pouch: Stretchy throat skin used in feeding, display, or cooling.
- Plunge dive: Entering the water rapidly from flight to capture food.
- Pursuit diver: An animal that swims after prey underwater.
- Totipalmate: Having webbing that connects all four toes.
- Wettability: The degree to which water spreads into or remains on a surface.
Design Two Fishing Toolkits
Design Two Fishing Toolkits
Draw a double-crested cormorant swimming low on one side and a much larger brown pelican floating higher on the other. Add a cormorant close-up with a narrow hooked bill, four webbed toes, partly wettable feather layers, and an underwater foot-propelled route. Add a pelican close-up with a long bill, elastic lower pouch, broad wings, four webbed toes, a scoop-and-drain sequence, and a separate plunge arrow. Label the jobs with simple icons for chasing, gripping, scooping, draining, flying, cooling, colonies, eggs, and chicks. Keep the activity on paper and never feed or approach wild waterbirds.
Meet Each Animal
Want the full fact file? Here are quick highlights from each animal’s own facts page.
Cormorant Fact Highlight
From the full animal facts pagePelican Fact Highlight
From the full animal facts pageMore Animal Comparisons
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