American White Pelican
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos · Pelicans
Banding codeAWPE
Keys to identifying it
1Size & shape
About 62 in long.
2Color pattern
- Huge white bird
- Black flight feathers show in flight
- Big orange-yellow bill and pouch
3Habitat & season
Great Salt Lake islands; Bear River and Utah Lake for fishing
In northern Utah: summer.
Seen most often in April, May, June, July, August and September.
Share of the region’s research-grade iNaturalist bird observations each month, scaled to this bird’s peak. Highlighted bars are its peak months.
4Voice
Mostly silent away from the colony; low grunts.
“silent — watch for the 9-foot wingspan”
Warbly has no recording of this bird.
Know it
- Has a wingspan of about 9 feet — one of North America's largest birds.
- Does not dive; groups herd fish together and scoop them up.
- Breeding adults grow a flat 'horn' on the bill that falls off after courtship.
- Up to 20,000 breed on Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake, then fly to fresh water to fish.
Often confused with
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret- Ross's Goose
- Dalmatian Pelican
From iNaturalist identification data for northern Utah.
From Wikipedia
The American white pelican is a large aquatic soaring bird from the order Pelecaniformes. It breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Costa Rica, in winter.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0