Birds · Pelecaniformes · Pelecanidae

Spot-billed Pelican

Pelecanus philippensis

Near Threatened

It could become endangered in the near future if current threats go unchecked. See full glossary

A medium-sized pelican within the genus, smaller and greyer than its congeners, and without bright colours. Its diagnostic feature is the dark spotting on the upper mandible, which gives it its name. At a distance it is hard to separate from the other pelicans of the region; only close up are the spotted bill and the overall greyish tone apparent.

Weight

4 kg – 6 kg

Diet

Piscivore

Feeds mainly on fish.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Moderate

Estimated population

Its range covers between 129,000 and 181,000 km²; the largest remaining populations are in India, Sri Lanka, southern Cambodia and Sumatra

Piscivore Diurnal Colonial Near Threatened Bird

7countries 7parks7same family

Fun facts

Its breeding is now confined to Sri Lanka, parts of south-eastern India and Cambodia, though historically it was seen in Java, Pakistan, Nepal, Turkey, Laos, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Pelicans appear in Christian tradition as a symbol of maternal love and, in Islamic tradition, are said to have helped build the Kaaba in Mecca.
It was described by Gmelin in 1789 from a specimen collected on the island of Luzon, in the Philippines, from which its epithet comes.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)
Habitat & environment: Lowland freshwater, brackish and marine wetlands of South-East Asia, mainly near open water and large shallow lakes. It submerges only slightly below the surface, never to any depth. In the breeding season it needs large trees, preferring bare or dead ones; in some areas it nests in large colonies close to human settlements
Gestation / incubation: 30 - 36 days
Litter / clutch size: 1-3 oval, white, rough-textured eggs, exceptionally up to 6. Incubation lasts 30-36 days. Hatching success in undisturbed pairs can reach 95%, but through sibling competition or cainism only one chick usually survives the first weeks in the wild; in this species the chicks survive longer than in the rest of the genus. Both parents feed them by regurgitation and, after a week, the chicks already put their heads into the adults' gular pouch to feed themselves

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List; BirdLife DataZone; Animal Diversity Web (McCubbrey, Kalamazoo College); Wikipedia (Spot-billed pelican); Brisson 1760; Gmelin 1789