According to Thirunaranan, founder of The Nature Trust, the bird has come alone from a distant land and lives among a group of pelicans.
A lone Great White Pelican was seen for a few fleeting moments at the Nellapattu Bird Sanctuary located at the end of Pulicat Lake in Andhra Pradesh on 29 December.
The sighting was documented by KVRK Thirunaranan, founder of The Nature Trust, and K Hussainiah, bird watcher and guide at the sanctuary.
The Great White Pelican has two distinct populations – one in Eastern Europe and Asia and the other in Africa. The bird is a winter visitor to Africa and Asia, noted Mr. Thirunaranan in a 2017 research article in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on bird sightings in Pallikaranai. One of the species was last seen in the Pallikaranai marshland. From December 2014 to July 2015.
There are very few records available of this species in South India, said Mr. Thirunaranan. “What makes this visitor unique is that it is a heavy bird weighing about 6 kg and like last time, it has come alone from a distant land and lives among a group of pelicans,” Mr. Thirunaranan he said. Available literature on the species indicates that this sighting can be considered a new winter distribution range for it in India, they said in the journal.
According to birdwatchers at Nelapattu Sanctuary, a Great White Pelican was sighted several times in 2017 and 2018. However, there is no record of sightings.