Pelecanus

Pelecanus is a genus of large water birds, the pelicans, comprising eight living species with a patchy, seasonally dependent but near-global distribution ranging latitudinally from the tropics to the temperate zone, though absent from interior Amazonian South America, the polar regions and the open ocean. Pelicans are distinguished by a long beak and a large throat pouch used to catch prey and drain water before swallowing, and by pale plumage except in the brown and Peruvian pelicans. Species range in size from the brown pelican at about 2.75 kilograms to the Dalmatian pelican at up to 15 kilograms.