Pelicans are a group of large water birds in the clade Pelecanidae. They are characterised by a long beak and large throat pouch used in catching, and draining water from, their prey. The eight living pelican species have a sometimes patchy global distribution, ranging latitudinally from the tropics to the temperate zone, though they are absent from much of interior and southern South America as well as from polar regions and the open ocean.