Spot-billed Pelican

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Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Spot-billed Pelican

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is January, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Spot-billed Pelican

The map shades 9 countries with regular records, and 2 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Recorded as a rare visitor in China, Indonesia.

About the Spot-billed Pelican

The spot-billed pelican or gray pelican is a member of the pelican family. It breeds in southern Asia from southern Iran across India east to Indonesia. It is a bird of large inland and coastal waters, especially large lakes. At a distance they are difficult to differentiate from other pelicans in the region although it is smaller but at close range the spots on the upper mandible, the lack of bright colours and the greyer plumage are distinctive. In some areas these birds nest in large colonies close to human habitations.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Peruvian PelicanPelecanus thagusThese birds are dark in colour with a white stripe from the top of the bill up to the crown and down the sides of the neck. Great White PelicanPelecanus onocrotalusThe great white pelican is a huge bird—only the Dalmatian pelican is, on average, larger among pelicans. Dalmatian PelicanPelecanus crispusThe Dalmatian pelican is the largest of all pelican species and one of the heaviest flying birds in the world, with a body length of 1.6–1.8 m (5 ft 3 in – 5 ft 11 in), a wingspan typically ranging between 2.7–3.2 m (8 ft 10 in – 10 ft 6 in)., and an average weight of about 9.5 kg (21 lb).

Side by side: Australian Pelican vs Spot-billed Pelican · Great White Pelican vs Spot-billed Pelican · Peruvian Pelican vs Spot-billed Pelican · Dalmatian Pelican vs Spot-billed Pelican · Pink-backed Pelican vs Spot-billed Pelican