American White Pelican

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The American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) is a very large (50"–70") white bird with black wing tips and an enormous orange bill. They have a wing span of approximately 3 m. They are graceful in flight, moving their wings in slow powerful strokes.

Unlike the Brown Pelican, the American White Pelican does not dive for its food. Instead it practices cooperative fishing. Each bird eats more than 4 pounds of fish a day, mostly carp, chubs, shiners, yellow perch, catfish, and jackfish.

White Pelicans nest in colonies of several hundred pairs on islands in remote brackish and freshwater lakes of inland North America. The most northerly nesting colony can be found on islands in the rapids of the Slave River between Fort Fitzgerald, Alberta and Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. The female lays 2 or 3 eggs in a shallow depression on the ground. Both parents incubate.

An American White Pelican at Edinburgh Zoo.
Visible on the bill are the remains of a protrusion grown during breeding season.

They winter in central California and along the Pacific coast of Guatemala; also along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Shooting by poachers is the largest known cause of mortality. Colonies are sensitive to disturbance and visits by humans can cause the pelicans to leave and abandon their nests.

This species is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1972.

The scientific name for this species combines Pelecanus, the Latin for pelican, with erythrorhynchos, derived from the Greek words erythros meaning red, and rhynchos meaning beak.

Photographs in the dozens of this species can be used here or for any non-profit environmental educational effort from the web site http://birdsofsanibel.free.fr/. The photographer, Peter Wallack, has the cover and 18 full pages in the March 2005 book publication "National Geographics Field Guide To The Birds of Florida."

References

• BirdLife International (2004). [Pelecanus erythrorhynchos]. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

External links

• [The Nature Conservancy works to protect habitat for the American white pelican and other species around the world]

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