Dalmatian Pelican - no, it's not Australian

The Dalmatian Pelican is not Australian, so it differs from the Australian Pelican of the Southern Hemisphere. The Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus), the largest of all pelicans, is from the Northern Hemisphere. They are wetland birds.

It is native to the Black Sea. The countries bordering and near the Black Sea include Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. The largest colony is said to be at Lake Mikri Prespa in Greece.However, they migrate to breeding areas such as southeastern Europe to India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and China from March to August.

The Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) is the most common (about 400,000 of them), whereas the Dalmatian Pelican and the Spot-Billed Pelican are the rarest (and classified as vulnerable), with a total population estimated to be 10,000-20,000. They are facing extinction in the wild.

The Dalmatian Pelicans in Georgia – where these were photographed at the Tbilisi Zoo – are about 170-190 centimetres long with a wingspan up to 3 metres, and weigh 11-15 kilograms. This makes them one of the heaviest flying birds, and a beautiful sight.

In May 2016 a Dalmatian Pelican was seen in the United Kingdom, at Land’s End in Cornwall. Brian Egan from the Rare Bird Alert network in the UK said there was strong evidence for the bird to be officially verified as the first one to visit the British shores in hundreds of years. The British Ornithological Union Records Committee will make a decision later in the year. The same bird was thought to have been seen in Poland and Germany during the breeding season, and was probably blown off-course towards England. Pelican skeletons have been found in Somerset, which used to be one of their breeding areas.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-36259924

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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