Pelicans are an easy butt of jokes about their huge bill and clumsy waddle on land, but while swimming they can assume the buoyant majesty of a galleon in full sail, often while collaboratively herding fish into the shallows before rhythmically plunging their heads below water in unison to feed.

However, it is in the air that they rise to their greatest powers, gracefully gliding on long wings in wide circles as they soar to great heights, or often gliding with fixed wings for astonishing distances within centimetres of the surface of wide expanses of water, a technique known as ‘pressure-soaring’.