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The great white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) also known as the eastern white pelican, rosy pelican or simply white pelican is a bird in the pelican family. It breeds from southeastern Europe through Asia and Africa , in swamps and shallow lakes.
The pink-backed pelican (Pelecanus rufescens) is a bird of the pelican family. It is a resident breeder in the swamps and shallow lakes of Africa and southern Arabia ; it has also apparently been extirpated from Madagascar .
For example, in Africa, the pink-backed pelican generally takes fish ranging in size from fry up to 400 g (0.9 lb) and the great white pelican prefers somewhat larger fish, up to 600 g (1.3 lb), but in Europe, the latter species has been recorded taking fish up to 1,850 g (4.1 lb). [71] In deep water, white pelicans often fish alone.
In 1993, Paul Johnsgard hypothesized that the Americas were colonized relatively late in pelican evolution, with the family originating in Africa or South Asia; however, he later supported the prevailing view that brown (with Peruvian) was the most divergent pelican (and considered American white and great white pelicans to be close relatives ...
In this video a pelican flies up behind an osprey who has just caught a fish and, in a stunning move, manages to wrest the tasty morsel from the raptor’s taloned grip.
The American white pelican was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other pelicans in the genus Pelecanus and coined the binomial name Pelecanus erythrorhynchos . [ 4 ]
The Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) is the largest member of the pelican family and perhaps the world's largest freshwater bird, although rivaled in weight and length by the largest swans. They are elegant soaring birds, with wingspans rivaling those of the great albatrosses , and their flocks fly in graceful synchrony.
The spot-billed pelican is a rather large water bird, often the largest or one of the largest native birds in the southern stretches of its range, albeit it is fairly small for a pelican. It is 125–152 cm (49–60 in) long and a weight of 4.1–6 kg (9.0–13.2 lb).