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 The Brown Pelican

The Brown Pelican

A Short Reader

Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.98

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    covering, formation, wingspan, pelican, flocks, although, flying, single, lays, male, average, along, large, size, female, which
     content words:    Atlantic Oceans

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The Brown Pelican
By Sheri Skelton 		  
1     The brown pelican is the smallest pelican although it's still a big bird. The average size of the brown pelican is four feet long with a wingspan of seven feet. The brown pelican has a short tail and short legs with webbed feet. Its body is brown and gray, and its head is white. It lives along the shores of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
 
2     The brown pelican has a long straight bill. Attached to its bill is a large pouch of skin. The pouch can hold about three gallons of fish and water, which is about three times as much as the pelican's stomach can hold. The brown pelican uses its bill and pouch just like a fish net. The brown pelican swoops down from the sky into the water and scoops up fish and water into the pouch with its bill. The pouch isn't used to carry fish. Once it has the fish in its bill, the brown pelican will swallow the fish. Sometimes, while the brown pelican is draining the water out of its bill, gulls try to snatch the fish right out of the pelican's pouch. Some gulls even sit on top of the brown pelican's head and wait for just the right moment to steal some fish.

Paragraphs 3 to 4:
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