Great White Pelican - BirdForum Opus

Photo by A. Meir
Eilat, Israel

Pelecanus onocrotalus

Identification

Male 175 cm, female 148 cm

• Adult is mostly white
• Very large bill

Distribution

Juvenile
Photo by Shantilal Varu
Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India, March 2013

Europe, Africa and Asia:
Europe: Scandinavia, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Corfu, Lesvos, Crete, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine
Northern Africa: Algeria, Egypt
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Zaire
Eastern Africa: Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal
Middle East: Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
Asia: Russia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, China, Tibet, Pakistan, India, Western Himalayas, Maldives, Bangladesh
Southeast Asia: Indochina, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Greater Sundas, Java

Taxonomy

Photo by Florian Andronache
Romania, 2011

This is a monotypic species^[1].

Habitat

They are found in freshwater lakes,deltas, marshes and swamps.

Behaviour

Breeding

They normally ground nest in colonies, 2 eggs are normally laid.

Diet

Pelicans feed on fish by dipping their heads into the waer and scooping up the fish. They will sometimes gather in a group to round up the fish.

Vocalisation

<flashmp3>Pelecanus onocrotalus (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved August 2014)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Great White Pelican. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 2 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Great_White_Pelican

External Links

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