American white pelican

Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

Identification Tips:

• Length: 50 inches Wingspan: 110 inches
• Sexes similar
• Huge, white bird with black primaries and outer secondaries
• Flies with neck tucked
• Does not plunge into water from the air as Brown Pelicans do but feeds while swimming

Adult:

• Long, orange bill with a pouch
• Short orange legs and feet

Immature:

• Brown-gray mottling about wing coverts
• Bill gray to flesh-colored

Similar species:

Unmistakable at rest. Wood Stork has black flight feathers and could be mistaken at a distance, but note dark, unfeathered head and neck, which is extended in flight. Whooping Crane, Northern Gannet and Snow and Ross' Geese have black primaries and could also be confused in flight at a distance, but they all lack black secondaries.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.