Great White Pelican

Pelecanus onocrotalus Linnaeus, 1758

175 cmLength291 cmWingspan9.3 kgWeight

This white pelican has black flight feathers and a yellow gular pouch hanging below its huge bill.

Most records: Israel, Kenya, South Africa

Looks like Dalmatian Pelican, Spot-billed Pelican

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Adults have mostly white body feathers, with black primaries and secondaries
Adults have a huge bill and a pale yellow gular pouch
Bare face, with forehead feathers tapering to a point
Adult legs and feet flesh-yellow to pink-orange

Male, female and young

Sexes similar, with the female smaller and showing brighter orange facial skin in the breeding season; juveniles are mainly brown on the head, neck and upperparts.

Voice

Usually mostly quiet; gives a low, soft croak in flight and a deep mooing sound at breeding sites.

Similar species

Dalmatian Pelican

Great White Pelican has pure white rather than grayish-white feathers, a bare pink facial patch around the eye, and pinkish legs and feet.

Spot-billed Pelican

Spot-billed Pelican is slightly smaller, with gray-tinged white feathers and a paler, duller bill.

Where and when it's recorded

Most records: Israel, Kenya, South Africa

Great White Pelican has been recorded at 562 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 73 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

To protect this bird from disturbance, we don't list exact sites.

Countries and regions with the most records

Israel Kenya South Africa India Tanzania Greece Namibia Bulgaria

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus), also known as the eastern white pelican (in contrast to the western pelican of the Americas), rosy pelican or simply white pelican, is a bird in the pelican family. It breeds from southeastern Europe through Asia and Africa, in swamps and shallow lakes.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Great White Pelican?

The Great White Pelican is about 175 cm long, with a wingspan of 291 cm and weighs around 9.3 kg.

Where does the Great White Pelican live?

Its breeding range: Palearctic, Africa: patchily inland eastern Europe to eastern Kazakhstan; Sub-Saharan Africa. It is most often recorded in Israel, Kenya and South Africa.