Dalmatian Pelican

The Dalmatian pelican is the largest member of the pelican family, and perhaps the world's largest freshwater bird, although rivaled in weight and length by the largest swans. They are elegant soaring birds, with wingspans that rival that of the great albatrosses, and their flocks fly in graceful synchrony. With a range spanning across much of Central Eurasia, from the Mediterranean in the West to the Taiwan Strait in the East, and from the Persian Gulf in the South to Siberia in the North, it is a short-to-medium-distance migrant between breeding and overwintering areas. No subspecies are known to exist over its wide range, but based on size differences, a Pleistocene paleosubspecies, P. c. palaeocrispus, has been described from fossils recovered at Binagady, Azerbaijan.