Pelicans are huge birds, and their beaks are also big and pocket- shaped. Pelicans are good swimmers, and they use their plump and well built legs alongside their feet which are webbed to aid them in swimming. They have an undersized tail which is four sided. Pelicans have elongated wings, and they possess numerous derivative feathers for flying. They make use of warm air waves to propel themselves and fly up to one hundred miles searching for food. Pelicans produce an oily substance from their napes, which they pick and distribute on their bodies to make the feathers water resistant.

Pelecanidae usually feed on fish, frogs, small sea animals and small birds. By stretching out their pocket-shaped beaks, they are able to catch fish. After getting hold of fish, a pelican has to drain water from the pouch outside the water before ingesting the fish. However, other birds may grab their food while they are draining the water, although this takes only an instant. In return, pelicans are known to sometimes grab food from other sea birds.

White pelicans are known to look for fish in groups. They create a single row, and then go after little fish in low waters, after which they scoop the fish up. Bigger fish are trapped with the tip of the beak, then thrown up in the air before being caught again mid air with the head first, and swallowed. Brown pelicans on the other hand are known to dive into the water to catch fish. They are the only known type of pelicans that use this mode of catching prey. Pelicans are social birds, and they live in groups. The white species of pelicans make their nests on the ground, and they have an advanced way of collective mating whereby several males go after one female on land, in the air or even in the water. Meanwhile, the males point at, open their beaks towards and try to poke each other. This can last up to a whole day. Pelicans that build their nests in trees employ a simpler procedure, where the males rest on the trees and call out for females.

Pelicans commence breeding soon after pairing up, and the process lasts for up to ten days before the time of laying the egg. The male is responsible for collecting material to build the nest, and the female puts the material together to form, a simple nest structure. Sitting on the eggs by pelicans is done by both sexes, and they do this by placing their feet on top of the eggs, or sometimes below. Pelicans are known to lay about two eggs. However, usually all chicks die within a few weeks, except one. The young pelicans are fed abundantly. After feeding, the chicks may appear to get unconscious and fall. This phenomenon is not clearly understood. Another strange phenomenon is that parents that nest on the ground sometimes pull their young around by the head before feeding them.