Great White Pelican

Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus )

The Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus ) is a species of bird in the family of pelicans.

Appearance

The White Pelican is a large pelican with a length of 160 cm and a wingspan of 280 cm. It differs from the Dalmatian Pelican by his white (not off-white ) plumage with a touch of pink in breeding plumage. The flight feathers are black, however. To the eye he has a big pink face spot. The legs are pink. The young birds are gray and have dark flight feathers also.

In flight it holds its head back as the heron, and the black flight feathers are visible. It rises elegantly to heaven and uses the thermals to gliders. The rudder flight consists of slow wing beats.

Dissemination

The white pelican breeds from southeast Europe to Asia in swamps and shallow lakes. In southern Africa it occurs in fresh and salt water in northern Botswana, western Namibia, on the west coast of South Africa, in Ostnatal and Eastern Transvaal.

Large breeding areas in Europe, the Danube Delta in Romania and Africa Walvis Bay in Namibia. The European representatives of the species wintering in northeast Africa.

Away from the breeding grounds of the Great White Pelican is a rare migratory bird, in Austria it was observed until the middle of the 19th century regularly as Irrgast. In modern times, some individuals are occasionally the Netherlands and Switzerland, seen in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Poland,. It should, however, act in most cases to imprisonment refugees.

Way of life

The White Pelicans breed in colonies of hundreds to thousands of pairs. The nest of the Pink Pelican is a messy pile of branches and twigs. Even the slightest disturbance he leaves the nest, the boys escape with just three to four weeks at risk also in the water. At 14 weeks, the young birds become independent.

Pelicans catch fish with their big beak pockets while they float on the water. Sometimes they also form V-shaped groups of 5 to 10 animals, which together drive the fish and alternately swooping with her beak. Because of overfishing by humans white pelicans have started off the coast of South Africa to hunt unguarded boobies chicks to feed their own young.

As with the Dalmatian pelicans and their number has been greatly reduced by the loss of habitat and persecution by humans, however, the inventory data by the IUCN in 2002 with 270000-290000 animals is still significantly larger. The species is therefore " not endangered" as.

Portrait

Preening

Young animal