CreatureData

Australian pelican

Pelecanus conspicillatus Temminck, 1824

LCLeast Concernbirds

The Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) is a species in the family Pelecanidae, order Pelecaniformes. Recorded adults weigh 5.45 kg to 5.51 kg and live up to 25 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)
Photo: JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the Australian pelican

Weight
5.51 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
2.3 m – 2.6 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
25 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
50 years
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
wetlandsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
33.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
2src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
3.5 yearssrc for Age at maturity
Lifestyle
Aquaticsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the Australian pelican?

AUSTRALIAN PELICAN · WINGSPAN 2.6 MADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 2.6 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the Australian pelican is about 1.5 times the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Photos of the Australian pelican

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)
W. Bulach · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

2 more photos exist under a licence we cannot display: view at source, view at source.

Where does the Australian pelican live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The Australian pelican is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Why a country list is not a range map

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the Australian pelican?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) is a large waterbird in the family Pelecanidae, widespread on the inland and coastal waters of Australia and New Guinea, also in Fiji, parts of Indonesia and as a vagrant in New Zealand. It is a predominantly white bird with black wings and a pink bill. It has been recorded as having the longest bill of any living bird. It mainly eats fish, but will also consume birds and scavenge for scraps if the opportunity arises.

From the Wikipedia article “Australian pelican” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Australian_pelican&oldid=1371952605), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the Australian pelican endangered?

The Australian pelican is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the Australian pelican classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderPelecaniformes
  5. familyPelecanidae
  6. genusPelecanus
  7. SpeciesPelecanus conspicillatus Temminck, 1824

Synonyms Pelecanus conspicillatus conspicillatus, Pelecanus conspicillatus westralis, Pelicanus validipes

Other names and names in other languages (36)
  • بجع أستراليArabic
  • Аўстралійскі пеліканBelarusian
  • Австралийски пеликанBulgarian
  • pelicà australiàCatalan
  • pelikán australskýCzech
  • Australsk PelikanDanish
  • BrillenpelikanGerman
  • aŭstralia pelikanoEsperanto
  • Pelícano australianoSpanish
  • austraalia pelikanEstonian
  • australianpelikaaniFinnish
  • Pélican à lunettesFrench
  • australski nesitCroatian
  • ausztrál pelikánHungarian
  • Undan kacamataIndonesian
  • Pellicano australianoItalian
  • コシグロペリカンJapanese
  • junggaarrkgs
  • australinis pelikanasLithuanian
  • brilpelikaanDutch
  • Australische PelikaanDutch
  • australpelikanNorwegian
  • pelikan australijskiPolish
  • pelicano-de-óculosPortuguese
  • pelicano-australianoPortuguese
  • Австралийский пеликанRussian
  • pelikán okuliarnatýSlovak
  • Australijski nesitSerbian
  • Australski pelikan - Аустралски пеликанSerbian
  • australisk pelikanSwedish
  • Avustralya PelikanıTurkish
  • пелікан австралійськийUkrainian
  • Bồ nông ÚcVietnamese
  • garranga bumarrixdk
  • 澳洲鵜鶘Chinese
  • 澳洲鹈鹕Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the Australian pelican

Other species in the same genus Pelecanus.

CompareAustralian pelican vs Great white pelicanAustralian pelican vs Dalmatian pelicanAustralian pelican vs Spot-billed pelicanAustralian pelican vs Brown pelican

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the Australian pelican?

An adult Australian pelican weighs 5.51 kg and has a wingspan of 2.3 m – 2.6 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the Australian pelican live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the Australian pelican for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the Australian pelican endangered?

The Australian pelican is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

How long does the Australian pelican live?

The Australian pelican has a recorded lifespan of 25 years.

What kind of animal is the Australian pelican?

The Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) belongs to the family Pelecanidae in the order Pelecaniformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/australian-pelican

MLA

“Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/australian-pelican.

BibTeX
@misc{australian_pelican_2026,
  title = {Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/australian-pelican},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}