Great White Pelican

Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) is a huge mostly white waterbird with broad black flight feathers, short legs and an exceptionally long bill carrying an expandable throat pouch. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It gathers on shallow lakes, swamps and sheltered coasts, often fishing cooperatively by driving fish into concentrated groups before scooping them from the water. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).