Spot-billed Pelican
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| Pelecanus philippensis Gmelin, 1789 |
The Spot-billed Pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) is a member of the pelican family. It breeds in southern Asia from southern Pakistan, Republic of India to Indonesia. It is a bird of large inland and coastal waters, especially shallow lakes. The nest is a heap of vegetation in a tree. Three to four eggs is the usual clutch size.
The Spot-billed Pelican is a small pelican, at 125-150 cm (49-60 in) long and a weight of 6 kg (13.2 lbs). It is mainly white, with a grey crest, hindneck and tail. In breeding plumage, there is a pink tone to the rump and underwings. Non-breeders are off-white in these areas, and immature birds are more extensively brown. As the species' name implies, there are grey spots on the pink bill in the breeding season.
The Spot-billed Pelican is sedentary resident with local movements and is distributed more widely in the non-breeding season. Like most other pelicans, it catches fish in its huge bill pouch while swimming at the surface.
Due to ongoing habitat loss and human disturbances, the Spot-billed Pelican's numbers have declined. However, it was more recently found out to be not quite as rare as believed, and was consequently downlisted from Vulnerable to Near Threatened status in the 2007 IUCN Red List, though the species has been extinct in the Philippines since the mid-20th century.[1]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ See BirdLife International (2007a, b).
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Pelecanus philippensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 10 May 2006.
- BirdLife International (2007a): [ 2006-2007 Red List status changes ]. Retrieved 2007-AUG-26.
- BirdLife International (2007b): Spot-billed Pelican - BirdLife Species Factsheet. Retrieved 2007-AUG-26.
- Grimmett, Richard; Inskipp, Carol, Inskipp, Tim & Byers, Clive (1999): Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.. ISBN 0-691-04910-6
- Harrison, Peter (1988): Seabirds (2nd ed.). Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7470-1410-8
