What's the largest web-foot bird?

Factual Questions
1

We’re having a small dispute in my office right now. Which is larger, the King Penguin or the Albatross. (Some people in here think it may be the swan, while Louisianna says it’s the Pelican.)

I know it’s a really dumb question, but there won’t be peace until we find the answer. (We looked on websites alread, please don’t say “Google is your friend” Google is the reason we’re in this mess…)

Oh, and one other thing. P.T. Barnum has the famous quote “A sucker is born every minute” but I know I read that he never said that. I looked in the archives and at snopes, but now I can’t find it. Did I really read it, or am I just crazy? (It’s another cause for dispute in the office.)

Yes, we have nothing better to do today than worry about the sizes of birds. :rolleyes:

2

google is still your friend, the wandering albatross is up to 18 lbs with an 11 foot wingspan while the royal albatross is a bit heavier at 20 but wingspan cites vary from 9 to 12 feet.

Brown pelicans are actually not that big, 9 lbs with an 8 foot wingspan.

But to confuse things a bit more other pelicans are larger including the dalmation pelican which weighs in at a massive 25 lbs and has an 11 foot wingspan. Apparently all Pelis have webbed feet.

http://www.ecocanada.com/redberry/project/species.htm#American

3

Here’s a cite on the barnum quote. No idea if it is true.

http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/barnum/

4

Oh, and emperor penguins are almost double the size of king penguins at about 30-40kg. Way heavier than an albatross but it depends whether you go by weight or wingspan.

5

Well, this kinda helps. We’ve decided that the question isn’t inherently flawed since it didn’t specify weight or wingspan…

6

BTW, does the question need to specify wingspan? Or is that understood?

7

I think Big Bird is way bigger than a pelican. He’s like seven feet tall.

Tris

8

Does he have webbed feet, Tris? On a related note, should we refer him over to Jester’s thread on the taxonomy of Muppets?

I recall that the largest flying bird is the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) of Central Asia, but I don’t believe that bustards have webbed feet.

9

All geese have webbed feet, right? The Spruce Goose is much larger than those other birds.