Great White Pelican

Pelecanus onocrotalus

Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Pelecanidae
Presence in the Strait: Vagrant
IUCN (global): LC · Least concern
In Spanish: Pelícano común

Photograph: Kostas Zontanos, CC BY, vía iNaturalist

Length: 175 cm
Wingspan: 226–360 cm

Presence in the Strait

Accidental. One bird on 27.08.72 at Tarifa, other on 18.08.98 together with storks at a roost in La Janda, later crossing the Strait; and another three birds at Tarifa in the 2nd hf. Oct. 2000., all possible escapes. Breeds in Eurasia, winters in Central and South Africa and India.

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

67 %

Peak in October. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 1 October 1999
Latest record: 11 September 2003

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Not included
Spanish Catalogue: Not included
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: Outside the Red List (not assessed)
Global Red List (IUCN): LC · Least concern

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Pelecanidae
GBIF taxon key: 2480350

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: Kostas Zontanos, CC BY, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Great White Pelican

Presence in the Strait

Gallery