A boy plays with pelicans in Yoff, commune of Dakar, Senegal March 14, 2018. (Photo by Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

A spot-billed pelican sits on a street light in Colombo on March 16, 2021. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Spot-billed pelican interact on the banks of an artificial lake in Colombo on September 28, 2021. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

A zoo keeper carries a pelican to move it to its winter enclosure at Dvur Kralove Zoo in Dvur Kralove nad Labem, Czech Republic on November 5, 2019. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

Michael Olivant, a Times reader, saw a chance to contribute when a Dalmatian pelican landed on his wife’s head at Lake Kerkini in northern Greece in the first decade of February 2025. (Photo by Michael Olivant/The Times)

An American white pelican takes flight on the island of Petatan in the municipality of Cojumatlan de Regules, Michoacan state, Mexico on February 23, 2024. The island becomes home to the pelicans during the winter, when they travel from the north of the United States and the south of Canada to the warmer waters of Lake Chapala in Mexico. The birds are a tourist attraction and people gather on the island's boardwalk to feed them and watch them fly. (Photo by Enrique Castro/AFP Photo)

Overall winner: The Art of Flight by Alwin Hardenbol (University of Eastern Finland). A panning shot of a Dalmatian pelican in flight. The picture was taken on Lake Kerkini in Greece. (Photo by Alwin Hardenbol/2020 British Ecological Society Photography Competition)

A pool ingeniously filled with clear water in the middle of Lake Kerniki in Greece enabled this shot of feeding pelicans. (Photo by Bence Mate/Close Up Photographer of the Year 2020)