Flight of the pelican captured with GoPro

An abandoned 3-month-old pelican nursed back to health and taught how to fly by resort workers in Tanzania takes us along on his first post-recovery flight.

According to the video, the bird had been abandoned by its flock during a storm at Lake Tanganyika. It washed ashore near Greystoke Mahale Park and was so injured it couldn’t feed itself when it was found by resort workers.

“He came here about three months ago,” the video narrator says. “He swam in off the lake after a big storm and he couldn’t fly and he has lost his parents. We’ve actually had to teach him to fly by running up and down the beach flapping our arms.”

The video, posted by GoPro on its YouTube page Thursday, shows the resort staff trying to teach the bird to fly again and highlights the first flight post recovery with a GoPro camera that had been attached to its beak.

After a few tries, the pelican takes off, flying just above the water for a bit. The bird then takes its first flight a tad higher, giving us a spectacular in-flight view before returning to the beach.