Western Gull and Brown Pelican

Galápagos Brown Pelican (加拉帕戈斯褐鵜鶘) ; Western Gull (西美鷗)
The Gambia (1999)
23rd June, 2009. Banjul

Brown Pelican is the smallest and only one can diving in the eight species of Pelicans (鵜鶘屬) genus, widely bleeding in Pacific or Atlantic seashores of North America and some will migrate to Chile or Guyana of South America for winter. Galápagos Brown Pelican is a subspecies of Brown Pelican, it is a resident bird of Galápagos Islands. However, the description of the stamp only shown Brown Pelican not the subspecies name.

Western Gull is a quite common bird in Pacific seashore of North America, from Washington to Baja California of Mexico. It likes nesting on the offshore islands, and its live normally from 15 to 25 years.

These two stamps are two of a set of seabird stamps issued by the Gambia, other two are American Oystercatcher (美洲蠣鷸) and Blue-footed Booby (藍腳鰹鳥) respectively. They are not birds of the Gambia as all of them only live in America area. The Gambia is one of black-listed countries frequency issue commercial stamps or the stamps not related to its country, but they still valid for postage when posting mail.