Pelicans

What Rockstar has shown

Trailer 2 has a quiet pelican moment at 2:12: the bird perches on the rail of an apartment balcony, as ordinary as a pigeon on a windowsill. In Game Informer's cover story, Rockstar then listed pelicans among the native Florida animals in Leonida, with flamingos, manatees and alligators. IGN's running list of birds spotted so far also includes seagulls, pigeons, cranes and storks, out of the more than 60 bird types Rockstar promised.

Where real pelicans live

Rockstar's balcony shot is accurate. Florida's wildlife agency (FWC) says brown pelicans are widespread along the whole coast and use beaches, sandbars, docks, mangrove islands and spoil islands, and can turn up inland outside the breeding season. A few FWC details worth knowing before launch:

What FWC says	What it could mean in Leonida
Brown pelicans dive headfirst for fish from as high as 50 feet	Watch the water off piers and marinas for diving birds
They breed in colonies of several hundred pairs, mostly in mangroves in Florida	The Keys and Grassrivers mangroves are the likeliest nesting spots
Wingspan up to 84 inches	Easy to spot, hard to miss in a photo

The species almost vanished in the 1960s and 70s because of the pesticide DDT, and federal officials removed Florida's brown pelicans from the endangered list in 1985 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). Today they are one of the most common big birds on any Florida waterfront.

Our take: the pelican is Rockstar's everyday Florida bird, the one you'll see on railings and docks while the flamingos stay out in the marsh. That makes it a good early checklist entry: try marinas, fishing piers and the beachfront in Vice City before heading into the wild. There is also a joke waiting to land. Rockstar's bio for Cal Hampton quotes him saying "There are way too many birds flying around in perfect formation", and fans have been reading meaning into GTA 6's birds since the first teaser (our bird theory check). Don't expect pelicans to unlock a conspiracy; do expect Cal to have opinions about them.

What to watch for at launch

• Whether pelicans dive for fish, as real ones do.
• Whether they nest in colonies in the Keys or Grassrivers.
• Whether Cal Hampton's bird paranoia turns into a side mission.