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American White Pelican
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
36.9699, -93.1872
Field Notes
Description:
A large aquatic bird that breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Central America and South America, in winter. The species also has the second largest average wingspan of any North American bird and is almost entirely bright white, except the black primary and secondary remiges, which are hardly visible except in flight.
Habitat:
They nest in colonies of several hundred pairs on islands in remote brackish and freshwater lakes of inland North America. They winter on the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts from central California and Florida south to Panama, and along the Mississippi River at least as far north as St. Louis, Missouri.
Notes:
As I took a birding hike I was thrilled to see hundreds of Pelicans making themselves at home on Lake Springfield.
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