The Great white pelican is a huge bird - only the Dalmatian pelican is, on average, larger among pelicans. The male has a downward bend in the neck and the female has a shorter, straighter beak. The plumage is predominantly white except on remiges, with a faint pink tinge on the neck and a yellowish base on the foreneck. The primary feathers are black, with white shafts at the bases, occasionally with paler tips and narrow fringes. The secondary feathers are also black but with a whitish fringe. The upperwing coverts, underwing coverts, and tertials are white. The forehead is swollen and pinkish skin surrounds the bare, dark eyes having brown-red to dark brown irides. It has fleshy-yellow legs and pointed forehead-feathers where meeting the culmen. 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.
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.
Great white pelicans live, breed, migrate, feed, and fly in formation in large colonies. Fishing is usually over by 8-9 a.m. and they spend the remainder of the day on small islands or sandbars resting, preening, and bathing. They bathe by ducking their head and body into the water while flapping their wings. When hot, they will spread their wings or gape to cool down. Large flocks may congregate at traditional roosts, these places also being used after fishing tips as daytime resting sites. They sometimes perch in trees, but usually, they roost on the ground. To defend his territory, a male threatens intruders by gaping, clapping his bill, and bowing, attacking with his bill if necessary. These birds are generally silent except in the breeding season when the adults make low, hoarse display calls.
Great white pelicans are monogamous and form long-term pair bonds. During the breeding season, a male behaves territorially: gaping, bowing, and clapping his bill, and may attack other males with his bill if they come too close. April or May is when the breeding season commences in temperate zones, but in Africa, it is essentially all year round, and in India, it runs from February until April. Males display their head crest and their brightly colored pouch. A pair will build a rudimentary nest from sticks on the ground or in a tree. They typically nest in colonies, along shallow lakes, in swamps, or on islands. Two eggs are usually laid and are incubated by the female for 31 days. Chicks fledge at 75 to 85 days, reaching reproductive maturity when three to four years old.
