Great white pelican Pelecanus onocrotalus
An experienced fisher and a social bird.
How the eastern white pelican fishes, flies, and fosters its young.
The eastern white pelican in a nutshell
- eats
- fish
- inhabits
- Southeast Europe, Russia and parts of Asia and Africa
- excels at
- fishing with a scoop net
Because the eastern white pelican has a delicate build, it cannot dive well. Instead, it fishes by pushing its bill underwater and scooping up water and fish in the large, expandable pouch in its lower beak.
Oddball
Although the pelican is relatively light, it is still one of the heaviest birds capable of flight. It takes off with a run-up on the water, and then glides for stretches on the thermals. Pelicans often fly in flocks to make the going less strenuous.
Regurgitation
Eastern white pelicans breed on islets in large inland lakes, building their nests of branches and reeds on the ground. The female lays one to four eggs and hatches out chicks that are bald and blind. During the first few weeks, the parents feed their young with regurgitated food. When the pelican chicks are strong enough, they stick their heads deep into the parent’s throat pouch to retrieve the food themselves.
After a few weeks, the young pelicans are ready to leave the nest. They then form noisy juvenile ‘pods’, which are almost like a kind of nursery. The parents continue to feed their young for some time. The chicks become independent after more than two months, and reach sexual maturity at the age of three to four years.
't Veentje
At ARTIS, the eastern white pelicans live in a very special spot: the historical pond 't Veentje, created in 1911. This pond was modelled upon the Naardermeer, which was the first protected nature reserve established by Natuurmonumenten (the Dutch Society for Preservation of Nature Monuments).
