American White Pelican, Pelecanus erythrorhynochos

American White Pelican, Pelecanus erythrorhynochos, Breeding. Photographs taken in the greater La Paz area of Baja California Sur, December 2019. Photographs courtesy of Dr. Tom Bartol, Carlsbad, California.

American White Pelican, Pelecanus erythrorhynochos. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, November 2019. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The American White Pelican, Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, is a member of the Pelecanidae Family of Pelicans, which has eight members placed in one genus, and one of eight global species of the Pelecanus Genus. They are known in Mexico as pelícano northeamericano.

The American White Pelican is very large in stature. They are white with black primaries and outer secondaries with an enormous yellowish-green bill that has a distensible gular pouch, and totipalmate webbed feet. During breeding season their bill and legs become bright orange, their head has white plumes, and they develop a laterally flattened “horn” on the upper mandible. Post breeding these colors fade, the head darkens, and the plumes and horn are lost. Their iris is hazel to bluish-gray, they have orange-yellow bare skin around the eyes and scarlet eyelids, and their legs and feet are pale yellowish-green.

The American White Pelican forage in shallow marshes, rivers, and lake edges, where they primarily consume small fish. They are usually seen in flocks either flying in synchronized formation, with their head withdrawn, or wading in water bodies foraging for food. They obtain their food by dipping and scooping and are not plunge divers like the Brown Pelican. They are known for cooperative foraging where flocks of swimming birds encircle fish and drive them into shallow waters when they become concentrated and easy prey. They primarily consume various kinds of small fish and limited amounts of crayfish, salamanders, and tadpoles. They reproduce in dense, synchronized nesting clusters or sub-colonies. The hatchings are dependent on their parents for food, warmth, and protection. The survival rates of the young are low with several birds harassed or killed by older nestmates. They are tolerant of humans from a distance except when breeding where they become very shy and are prone to abandon their eggs and young if predators approach. American White Pelicans can live to be twenty-seven.

The American White Pelican is a wintertime visitor to Mexico. They are found within Baja California, western Mexico within the Pacific Slope, and from the central plateau to the northern Yucatan Peninsula on the Atlantic Slope. They avoid areas where winter temperatures dip below 4°C (39°F).

The American White Pelican is most likely confused with the Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis (normally found in coastal regions, smaller in stature, darker body plumage, forages by plunge diving).

From a conservation perspective, the American White Pelican is categorized by the IUCN as Least Concern with stable, widely distributed increasing populations. In the early 1960s, populations of White Pelicans were in serious decline. At present their populations have been increasing at a level of 3% per year and are now at a level where they have become pests within the aquaculture industry in the Southeastern United States, especially during spring migration. They have drawn attention because of their large body size, white and black coloration, graceful flight, highly developed cooperative foraging, and the somewhat comic proportions of their large bill and pouch. Their long-term survival is threatened by human development within their breeding territories.