Dalmatian Pelican

Photos copyright: monacoeye • Danube Delta, Romania • May 2009 • Do not copy without permission

Bird name: Dalmatian Pelican
Latin: Pelecanus crispus
Other: Pélican frisé
Family: Pelecanidae • Pelicans

The Dalmatian Pelican, a key species for the Delta, is quite a rare bird, with IUCN conservation status classed as Vulnerable. There are reportedly about 1000 breeding pairs remaining, scattered across relatively few sites in south-eastern Europe.

Fortunately I saw about a dozen birds over three days in the Danube. Sometimes flying overhead, sometimes with White Pelicans standing on a spit, sometimes on lakes and waterways.

Whereas the White Pelican is seen in large flocks, the Dalmatian Pelican is usually seen in ones, twos and threes. It is distinguishable from the White Pelican by lack of pink colouring, especially lack of pink lores, grey, not dark, irises and lack of thick black wing stripe.

The birds I saw all had dirty white matted hair on the back of their necks - though one characteristic of the Dalmatian Pelican is much longer, curly, hair on the neck.

In the photo below, taken on the Black Sea, the first, second and fourth pelicans from the left are Dalmatian; the other two, with thinner pinkish necks, are White Pelicans.