Rare Dalmatian Pelican keeps date with the UAE

Kalba sighting is only fourth in 50 years

Arare bird has been spotted for the fourth time in 50 years in the UAE, according to Dubai Safari Park’s principal wildlife specialist Dr Reza Khan.

“Dalmatian Pelican is a very large wetland bird. It has been sighted only three times between December 1970 and up to October 6 this year. The fourth bird was sighted by Sami Majeed and others on October 7 in a small dam lake near Kalba in Sharjah’s east coast,” Dr Khan told Gulf News.

Known as the largest member of the pelican family, and perhaps the world’s largest freshwater bird, this species breeds in eastern Europe and eastcentral Asia, in Montenegro, Albania, Armenia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey.

Sami Majeed is a wildlife warden at Wadi Wurayah National Park in Fujairah. In the latest spotting of Dalmatian Pelican by him and others, an immature bird was sighted from October 7 to 9.

Dr Khan said uaebirding. com has listed the four rare sightings of the bird whose scientific name is Dalmatian Pelican Pelecanus Crispus, denoting its status as vagrant. A rare vagrant is a bird that strays outside its expected breeding, wintering or migrating range.