Order: Pelecaniformes

Family: Pelecanidae

 

Size:  up to 160 to 183 cm in length and 290 to 351 cm in wingspan

Weight: 09 – 15 kg

 

Key Features:  Huge, whitish water bird. Silvery-white breeding plumage; Yellow to purple bare skin around eyes; Orange-red gular pouch at onset of breeding becoming yellow later;  Pale grey underwing becoming darker at wing-tips; Bushy crest on nape.

 

Voice:  The Dalmatian pelican is often silent, as most pelicans are, although it can be fairly vocal during the mating season, when it may engage in a wide range of guttural, deep vocalisations, including barks, hisses and grunts.

 

Breeding:  It breeds on small islands in freshwater lakes or in dense aquatic vegetation. The species makes use of habitats surrounding its breeding sites, including nearby islands and wetlands.

 

Diet:  This pelican feeds almost entirely on fish. Other small wetlands-dwellers may supplement the diet, including crustaceans, worms, beetles and small water birds, usually nestlings and eggs.

 

Habitat: It occurs mainly at inland, freshwater wetlands but also at coastal lagoons, river deltas and estuaries.

 

Habits: The Dalmatian pelican requires around 1,200 g (2.6 lb) of fish per day and can take locally abundant smaller fish such as gobies, but usually ignore them in lieu of slightly larger fish.  It usually forages alone or in groups of only two or three. It normally swims along, placidly and slowly, until it quickly dunks its head underwater and scoops the fish out, along with great masses of water. The water is dumped out of the sides of the pouch and the fish is swallowed. 

 

Conservation Status: Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Burnie D and Wilson DE (Eds.), Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the World's Wildlife. DK Adult (2005), ISBN 978-0-7894-7764-4.

 

CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), ISBN 978-0-8493-4258-5.

 

Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds by Christopher Perrins. Firefly Books (2003), ISBN 978-1-55297-777-4.

 

Ali, Salim (1993). The Book of Indian Birds. Bombay: Bombay Natural History Society.ISBN 978-0-19-562167-9.

 

Harrison, Peter, Seabirds: An Identification Guide. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (1991), ISBN 978-0-395-60291-1.

 

del Hoyo, et al., Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicons (1992), ISBN 978-84-87334-10-8.

 

Dalmatian pelican videos, photos and facts – Pelecanus crispus. ARKive. Retrieved on July 02nd, 2014.

 

BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Pelecanus crispus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on July 02nd, 2014.

 

Photo Courtesy

Dibyendu Ash, Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispcus)