Brown Pelican

Taxonomy

Order

Pelecaniformes

Family

Pelecanidae

Genus

Pelecanus

eBird Code

brnpel

Subspecies (5)

• Pelecanus occidentalis californicus

  breeds from southern California (Channel Islands) south locally to northwestern Mexico (south to Sinaloa); disperses north and south along the coast

• Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis

  breeds coastally in eastern USA (Maryland southward to Florida and Texas), eastern Mexico, Belize, and Honduras; and on Pacific coasts of Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama; disperses north on Atlantic coast and southward to eastern Brazil; and on Pacific coast, north to southern Mexico and southward to Peru

• Pelecanus occidentalis murphyi

  breeds on the Pacific coast of northwestern South America (Colombia and Ecuador); disperses southward to northern Chile

• Pelecanus occidentalis occidentalis

  West Indies and Caribbean to islands off Venezuela

• Pelecanus occidentalis urinator

  Galapagos