The Dalmatian Pelican is one of the reasons why many birdwatchers head towards the Danube Delta. During my 15 years of guiding I have had my fair share of twichers wo came to Romania only to see this bird. It is not always easy to find the birds during spring especially when they stick to the colonies. The places to see the Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) are easy to reach even by car – Histria area, Lake Nuntasi, Vadu. In the delta itself the species can be seen usually on the larger lakes from the eastern part (fluvio -maritime ) from Mila 23 onward but that is not a rule. I had the privilege to participate as a photographer in the project for monitoring the Dalmatian Pelican in Danube Delta and Dobrogea. My role was to photograph the colonies from airplane and than handle them to specialist for the count. Below you can find a couple of aerial pictures and some other images I have managed to take in the past few years. This being the bird with the largest wingspan in Europe (about 3.2m) you would say it is easy to photograph… well it is but not as easy as it looks. The most beautiful pictures are taken during winter time – January – March when they have the breeding plumage with the red beak.

Here below you can see the lake of Ceaplacea where there is one of the colonies. This little lake is so hard to reach and it is said no one entered the lake in the past 20 years. It is hard to believe but I sure hope this is true, just for the sake of the Dalmatian Pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus).

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