One of the questions that interested us last summer was why we were seeing a small fraction of breeding Brown Pelicans in Texas with red pouches. This is a characteristic of the Pacific subspecies of Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis californicus); the Atlantic subspecies, P. o. carolinensis, has a greenish-yellow pouch in breeding plumage.
This weekend, I got the confirmation I had hope for as CH24, a male from Chester Island, made the journey along the coastline and across the Mexican isthmus.
His migration took him across about 200 km (100 miles) of land at Mexico's narrowest point, from Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf to Salina Cruz on the Pacific. From there, he continued south and is currently in the La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve, near the Mexico/Guatemala border.
And, as a bonus, check out this graphic showing the male/female breakdown for our 6 study sites and 3 regions: