© GW - monacoeye, all rights reserved • Gambia, March 2013

Bird name: Pink Backed Pelican
Latin: Pelecanus rufescens
Other: Pélican gris (Fr)
Family: Pelecanidae - Pelicans
Range: Africa
Similar: Great White Pelican

The Pink-backed Pelican was the most common pelican seen when sailing up the Gambia River. We saw large groups perched in trees beside the river, sometimes in mixed flocks with Marabou Storks.

Differentiating them from Great White Pelicans seems quite difficult. Pink-backed Pelicans have a dark loral spot in front of the eye, a dark line behind the eye, a pinkish pouch.

Presumably most of these are juveniles or subadults, from their dark colouring.


Below, Pink-backed Pelicans in tree, River Gambia, Feb 2013


Below, Pink-backed Pelicans in tree, River Gambia, Feb 2013


Below, juvenile Pink-backed Pelican, Tendaba, Gambia, March 2013
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© RP/monacoeye • St Barths • 2008 • All rights reserved

Bird name: Brown Pelican
Latin: Pelecanus occidentalis
Other:
Family: Pelecanidae - Pelicans
Range:
Similar:

Pictured above is the Caribbean Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis occidentalis, sent in by Robert Paylor in St Barths.

The Brown Pelican, the smallest of the pelicans, is found in North, Central and South America.

Below, large numbers of Brown Pelecans, Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis, seen on along the shoreline in Panama City near the airport.More photos...

© monacoeye • Danube Delta, Romania • May 2009 • All rights reserved

Bird name: Great White Pelican
Latin: Pelecanus onocrotalus
Other: Great White Pelican • Eastern White Pelican
Family: Pelecanidae - Pelicans
Range:
Similar:

Half of all White Pelicans breed in the Danube Delta, where they can be seen in great numbers, spiralling up on thermals, high in the sky, or swimming in the Black Sea and lakes in the Delta, often with cormorants.

The White Pelican has pink lores and dark irises, which distinguish it from the rarer Dalmatian Pelican. The White Pelican also has a thick black trailing stripe to on the wing. Pictured below in “more photos” is one unusual individual with both white and black feathers.

Also seen on MacCarthy Island in the Gambia, March 2013.




More photos...

© monacoeye • Danube Delta, Romania • May 2009 • All rights reserved

Bird name: Dalmatian Pelican
Latin: Pelecanus crispus
Other: Pélican frisé (Fr)
Family: Pelecanidae - Pelicans
Range:
Similar:

The Dalmatian Pelican, a key species for the Delta, is quite a rare bird, with IUCN conservation status classed as Vulnerable. There are reportedly about 1000 breeding pairs remaining, scattered across relatively few sites in south-eastern Europe.

Fortunately I saw about a dozen birds over three days in the Danube. Sometimes flying overhead, sometimes with White Pelicans standing on a spit, sometimes on lakes and waterways.

Whereas the Great White Pelican is seen in large flocks, the Dalmatian Pelican is usually seen in ones, twos and threes. It is distinguishable from the Great White Pelican by lack of pink colouring, especially lack of pink lores, grey, not dark, irises and lack of thick black wing stripe.

The birds I saw all had dirty white matted hair on the back of their necks - though one characteristic of the Dalmatian Pelican is much longer, curly, hair on the neck.

Dalmatian Pelican, Danube Delta, Romania • May 2009 • All rights reserved
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030 Pelecanidae - Pelicans - IOC 2.5 - 2010

Pelecanus onocrotalus - Great White Pelican - C, SW Eurasia - Africa, N India
Pelecanus rufescens - Pink-backed Pelican - Widespread Africa
Pelecanus philippensis - Spot-billed Pelican - SE India, Sri Lanka, Sumatra
Pelecanus crispus - Dalmatian Pelican - C, SW Eurasia - Greece to S China
Pelecanus conspicillatus - Australian Pelican - Widespread Australasia
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos - American White Pelican - C North America - S South America, Central America
Pelecanus occidentalis - Brown Pelican - coasts, Caribbean
Pelecanus thagus - Peruvian Pelican - coastal Peru & Chile