Nigel is a brown pelican who lives in Sydney Harbor and a major character in Finding Nemo. He is a pelican con-artist and a friend of the Tank Gang.
He is voiced by Geoffrey Rush in English, who also portrayed Hector Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean film series. And by the late Tetsuo Gotō in Japanese.
Nigel flies to the dentist's office. The Tank Gang explains about dentistry to him. Nigel hears the dentist after his words. The dentist keeps him away from his office. The next day, he and the other sea creatures and pelicans hear Marlin's story about why Nemo is lost. Nigel gets a crab off his wing and fetches it to the seagulls. Later that day, he visits Nemo again in the dentist's office. He tells the Tank Gang the story of how Marlin lost Nemo and is looking for him. The next day, he takes Marlin and Dory to rescue Nemo after avoiding the angry seagulls and helping his friend Gerald, who had temporarily tried to eat them. However, he recognizes them, and offers to take them to where Nemo is. Nigel later attempts to free Nemo, but the dentist notices that the pelican is invading his office. The dentist gets Nigel out of his office again. Nigel brings Marlin and Dory back to the water. He apologizes to them, saying "I'm so sorry... truly I am", and then flies off. This is the last we see of them, but seeing as how he heard the story of how Marlin had been travelling the ocean to save Nemo, which had been passed along by many different sea creatures and is how he shared the story with the Tank Gang, odds are that he also eventually heard about how Nemo and Marlin were reunited shortly afterwards..
Gallery
"Would you just SHUT UP?!!! You rats with wings!
"THERE! TAKE IT, YA HAPPY?!"
Nigel hearing a word of Marlin's journey to find Nemo and eagerly flies on his way to the dentist's office to spread the word.
Nigel flying into the dentist's window.
"Your father's been traveling halfway across the whole ocean, looking for you!"
"Alright, don't make any sudden moves. Hop inside my mouth if you want to live."
Nigel tricking the Seagulls into puncturing a nearby sail.
Trivia
Brown pelicans' (Pelecanus occidentalis) geographical distribution don't extend to Australia; they are only found in the Americas, making Nigel's appearance in the film incorrect.
In the German dub of Finding Nemo, Nigel is named Niels and voiced by Thomas Fritsch.