The Great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) that lives in the shallow swamps in Africa is one of the largest flying birds in the world. It has the abilities of multiple birds, such as long flights and swimming. Its unique characteristic is the “gular pouch” inside its beak. Its legs are short and strong with fully webbed toes that allow it to propel itself in water and to take off from the surface of the water. They are powerful fliers and often travel in flocks in a V-formation to reduce drag for the group.
Resident populations of Great white pelicans are found the whole year round south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. Migratory populations inhabit Eastern Europe to Kazakhstan when it is the breeding season and during the winter in northeast Africa and Iraq to the north of India and southern Vietnam. In Europe, they occur in freshwater lakes, marshes, swamps, or deltas, wherever there are sufficient amounts of grasses or reed beds for nesting. In Africa, they are found in lowlands and freshwater or alkaline lakes. Shallow, warm water is needed for the fishing technique of these birds.
In breeding season, the male has pinkish skin while the female has orangey skin on its face. The bill is mostly bluish-grey, with a red tip, reddish maxilla edges, and a cream-yellow to yolk-yellow gular pouch. The white plumage becomes tinged-pink with a yellow patch on the breast, and the body is tinged with yellowish-rosy. It also has a short, shaggy crest on the nape. The white covert feathers contrast with the solid black primary and secondary feathers. The legs are yellow-flesh to pinkish orange. Both male and female are similar, but the female is smaller and has brighter orange facial skin in the breeding season. The juvenile has darker, brownish underparts that are palest at the rump, center of the belly, and uppertail coverts. The underwing coverts are mostly dull-white, but the greater coverts are dark and there is a dark brownish bar over the lesser coverts.
The rear tertials upperwing coverts mostly have paler tips with a silvery-grey tinge on the greater secondary coverts and tertials. It has dark flight feathers and brown-edged wings. The head, neck, and upperparts, including the upperwing coverts, are mostly brown - this is the darkest part of the neck. The facial skin and the bill, including its gular pouch, are greyish to dusky greyish. The forehead, rump, and abdomen are white, and its legs and feet are grey. Its blackish tail occasionally has a silvery-grey tinge. Its underparts and back are initially browner and darker than those of the Dalmatian pelican, and the underwing is strongly patterned, similar to the juvenile Brown pelican.
