Chile pelican
| Chile pelican | ||||||||||
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Chilean Pelican ( Pelecanus thagus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Pelecanus thagus | ||||||||||
| Molina , 1782 |
The Chile pelican ( Pelecanus thagus ) lives on the Pacific coast of Peru and Chile , south to Isla Mocha . It was long considered a subspecies of the brown pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis ) and was only recognized as an independent species by the South American Classification Committee in 2007. Outside the breeding season, the chile pelican and brown pelican occur partly sympatric in the same area on the coast of Peru . At Isla Santa Clara , non-breeding chile pelicans coexist with breeding Pelecanus occidentalis murphyi , a subspecies of the brown pelican. Mixed breeds between the two taxa were never found.
features
When fully grown, chile pelicans can reach a body length of 1.5 meters and a body weight of 7 kilograms. They are larger than the brown pelicans and weigh about twice as much. Males get around 15 to 20% heavier than females. Like brown pelicans, they have dark, but more gray than brown, plumage. The neck and head of adult birds are white. The tip of the beak is reddish, the skin of the face is black, the bare skin around the eyes is pink, and the throat pouch is bluish.
Chile pelicans live on rocky coasts and breed there in large colonies, but not on trees like the brown pelican. Their population is heavily dependent on the food supply, especially the South American anchovy ( Engraulis ringens ). There are around 500,000 copies today. However, this is only part (around 30%) of the original population, which was badly affected by the El Niño of 1998.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Avibase: Chile pelican ( Pelecanus thagus )
- ↑ a b Proposal (# 271) to South American Classification Committee Separate Pelecanus thagus from P. occidentalis ( Memento of the original from June 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b BirdLife International Peruvian Pelican Pelecanus thagus
Web links
- Pelecanus thagus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed March 7 of 2010.