The Pelican as a Christian Symbol represents atonement and charity. 'Pelican in her piety' in heraldry and symbolical art, is a representation of a pelican in the act of wounding her breast in order to nourish her young with her blood a practice fabulously attributed to the bird. The pelican cutting open its own breast represents Christ's death on the cross, and the shedding of his blood to revive us and therefore adopted as a symbol of the Redeemer and of charity. An explanation of this is that the pelican's bill has a crimson red tip and the contrast of this red tip against the white breast probably gave rise to the tradition that the bird tore her own breast to feed her young with her blood.The following reference to the pelican is in the Bible:
Pelican: (Heb. kaath , sometimes translated "cormorant," as (Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14) though in the margin correctly referred to as "pelican"
Leviticus 11:13-18: The law avoid "the birds you are to detest and not eat because thy are detestible".
Leviticus 11:17-18 - 'Laws about Animals for Food', the following 'Avoid the Unclean'
: and the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl, 18 and the white owl and the pelican and the carrion vulture.
