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  Profile

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  In flight

Seabirds

Dalmatian Pelican

Pelecanus crispus

• legendary
• 92 km/h
• Near Threatened

The world's largest freshwater bird, with a 10-foot wingspan and a curly mullet. Your message arrives on a flying barge.

Population

~11,400-13,400 mature individuals (est. 5,700-9,000 breeding pairs), decreasing

Habitat

Large inland freshwater wetlands -- lakes, rivers, deltas, floodplains -- as well as coastal lagoons and estuaries; breeds on islands within lakes and in dense reedbeds

Fun fact

The Dalmatian Pelican has the largest average wingspan of any pelican species and the second-longest bill of any living bird (after the Australian Pelican).

Range

Breeds discontinuously from the eastern Mediterranean and southeast Europe (Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria) across Turkey, Russia, and Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan) to Mongolia; winters south to Iran, Iraq, the Indian subcontinent, and coastal China

Diet

Almost exclusively fish (carp, pike, perch, eels, gobies), typically 1.2-1.5 kg per day, caught by surface-scooping alone or in cooperative groups

Size

1.7 m

Wingspan

2.95 m

Lifespan

25 years