Order Felecanitormes 



Pelicans: Family Pelecanidae 



White Pelican: 



Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Gmelin 



DESCRIPTION. "Tail feathers 2.4. Breeding plumage: mainly white, primaries and 

 most of secondaries black; back of head with thin white or yellowish crest, breast 

 and lesser wing coverts with narrow lanceolate yellowish feathers; upper mandible 

 with upright horn. Post-breeding plumage: crest replaced by short grayish feathers, 

 upper mandible without horny excrescence. Adults in winter plumage: back of head 

 white; bill pouch and feet pale yellow instead of orange. Young: white, with gray 

 on top of head and lesser wing coverts. ' ' (Bailey) Downy young: Born naked but soon 

 covered with soft pure white down. Si^e: "Length 4^2 to nearly 6 feet, extent 8^2 

 to nearly 10 feet, wing zo.oo 2.5.15, bill 11.05-15.00; weight about 17 pounds." 

 (Bailey) Nest: Often only a depression in the ground, sometimes a structure built 

 up above ground with almost any available material. In the tule marshes often 

 trampled masses of tule that form great floating platforms. Eggs: i to 3, with 2. the 

 usual number, dull white, with usually more or less of a calcareous deposit (Plate 

 12., A). 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from Manitoba and North Dakota west and south 

 to British Columbia and Pyramid Lake, Nevada, to Salton Sea, California. Winters 

 along southern coasts southward. In Oregon: Breeds, or formerly bred, in Klamath, 

 Lake, and Harney Counties. Now much reduced in numbers. 



THE WHITE PELICAN, one of the largest and most majestic birds of Oregon, 

 arrives in March and remains until November (earliest date, March n; 

 latest, November 13, both Klamath County). Formerly very abundant in 

 the State, it has been very greatly reduced in numbers in recent years. 

 Before this reduction occurred, practically every naturalist who visited 

 Oregon after Townsend's time (1839) f un d opportunity to visit the great 

 pelican colonies and comment at length upon them, so that more has been 

 written about this species than about most other water birds. The 

 colonies were usually located on great masses of floating tules that had 

 been trampled down by the birds until they formed floating platforms, 

 often firm enough to support a grown person. There the birds laid their 

 eggs, usually two (egg dates from May 10 to June 15), and reared their 

 young. 



Drainage and unprecedented drought conditions combined seemed to 

 doom the species as a nesting bird in Oregon, and in 1932. there was not 

 a single known nesting colony in the State. In 1934, however, there was 

 a small colony on Upper Klamath Lake, although its location was known 



