Nombre en español: Pelícano Peruano

Nombre en inglés: Peruvian Pelican

Nombre científico: Pelecanus thagus

Familia: Pelecanidae

Categorías: Hipotéticas

El pelícano peruano (Pelecanus thagus) es una especie de ave marina de la familia Pelecanidae que habita en América del Sur. Actualmente es considerado como una especie propia de pelícano y no una subespecie del pelícano pardo (Pelecanus occidentalis).

Distribución

El pelícano habita las costas del Pacífico del Perú y Chile, llegando por el sur hasta el Canal de Beagle frente a la isla Picton, siendo accidental en Argentina, en especial en lagos cordilleranos: lago Puelo y lago Fagnano.​

Nombres comunes

En Chile es llamado pelícano, huajache o alcatraz, en Argentina es llamado pelícano pardo, en cambio en Perú se le llama pelícano peruano, también es conocido como pelícano de humboldt o pelícano alcatraz.

Descripción

Mide 1.1 metros de largo y sus alas pueden alcanzar una envergadura que sobrepasa los 2.28 m. Posee un gran pico de color amarillo con una bolsa debajo (llamada bolsa gular) que utiliza para capturar y guardar los peces con que se alimenta. Su plumaje es de color pardo oscuro en el dorso mientras que su frente, pecho y cuello son de color blanco. La parte dorsal de este último, se torna parda durante el período reproductivo.

Peruvian pelican

The Peruvian pelican (Pelecanus thagus) is a member of the pelican family. It lives on the west coast of South America, breeding in loose colonies from about 33.5 degrees south in central Chile to Piura in northern Peru, and occurring as a visitor in southern Chile and Ecuador.  It used to be considered a subspecies of the brown pelican.

Description

These birds are dark in colour with a white stripe from the top of the bill up to the crown and down the sides of the neck. They have long tufted feathers on the top of their heads. It was previously considered a subspecies of the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis). The Peruvian pelican is considerably larger, ranging from about 5 to 7 kg (11–15 lb) in weight, 137 to 152 cm (4.5–5.0 ft) in length and with a wingspan of about 228 cm (7.5 ft). Compared to the brown pelican, it also has proportionally longer crest feathers, as well as differences in the colours of the gular pouch, beak, scapulars and greater wing coverts.

Behaviour

Breeding

The main breeding season occurs from September to March. Clutch size is usually two or three eggs. Eggs are incubated for approximately 4 to 5 weeks, with the rearing period lasting about 3 months.

Breeding occurs in large coastal colonies.

Feeding

Peruvian pelicans feed on several species of fish. Unlike the brown pelican, they never dive from a great height to catch its food, instead diving from a shallow height or feeding while swimming on the surface. On occasion they may take other food items, such as nestling of imperial shags, young Peruvian diving petrels, gray gulls and cannibalize unrelated chicks of their own species. They also feed on pelagic species such as anchovies. In fact, those in the northern Humboldt Current System feed almost exclusively on one species, the Peruvian anchoveta.

The birds feed around cold-water upwellings, being found along the Humboldt Current.

Conservation

Its status was first evaluated for the IUCN Red List in 2008, being listed as Near threatened. Its status was reassessed in 2018, and it was again listed as Near threatened, but with increasing population.

One factor affecting their status may be competition with fishing industries for anchovies, a primary food source for the species.

Fuentes: Wikipedia/eBird/xeno-canto