Silver pelican – Pelecanus crispus

The silver pelican is one of the largest bird species in the world, reaching a height of 1.20 m, with a wingspan of up to 3.20 m and a weight of 6 to 12 kg. Its plumage is ashen, its beak has an expandable yellow sac at the bottom (laryngopharynx), and its fingers are webbed together.

During the breeding season the color of their sac becomes dark orange. It has a total population of 10,400-13,900[1], in 19 colonies from Greece to China. In Greece, silver pelicans nest in Mikri Prespa, Kastoria Lake, Amvrakikos Gulf, Messolonghi Lagoon and Kerkini Lake. The silver pelican is a bird that feeds on fish, but it does not compete with fishermen because its food consists mainly of fish that are abundant and of little commercial value and of sick or even dead fish that it catches very easily. It usually fishes in lagoons, but also in estuaries, rivers, reed marshes, artificial lakes and the sea. Its daily requirements for food are 900-1200 g. It builds its nest of grasses and twigs on isolated islands and in inaccessible reed beds. There, during the breeding season (January-July), she usually lays two eggs (rarely three), which she incubates for 30 days, covering them with the nectary membrane of their legs. Because the incubation is done with the sole of their feet, at the slightest disturbance from humans, trying to fly away, silver pelicans, being a large and heavy bird, crush their eggs, while several silver pelicans do not even return to their nest. The risk remains the same even if the chicks have already hatched, which, up to the age of two and a half months, are completely dependent on their parents. Both parents take turns feeding their young in a very characteristic way: the chick greedily dips its head into the parent’s beak and eats the half-digested food (fish) straight from the pouch. By mid-August, almost all the chicks are able to fly, and they follow the adults in their local movements.

PRESERVATION STATUS:
It is considered one of the rarest bird species and is protected by international treaties such as the Agreement for the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) and by Greek legislation, which prohibits hunting and disturbing its breeding grounds. It is included in Annex I of Directive 79/409 (on the conservation of wild birds) of the European Community, as amended by Directive 2009/147/EC. According to the IUCN red data list, its global conservation status classifies it as a near threatened species (NT:Near Threatened).

THREATS:
Human disturbance to colonies during the breeding season is the main threat to the silver pelican in Greece. Poaching and collisions with power lines are also important anthropogenic factors in pelican mortality, particularly during the migration season.
Silver pelicans, in order to continue nesting in the lagoons, need an abundant food source. In recent years, there have been repeated phenomena of the shrinking of wetlands and the reduction of fish in the lagoons. These alterations, related to human activities in the surrounding areas, threaten not only the silver pelicans, but also the fish fauna and the human activities that live from it. In addition, the installation of more and more wind turbines on ridges is a potential threat to the silver pelican as well as to all large birds, with the particularity that silver pelicans regularly make long journeys as they fly between different wetlands during the breeding season in order to to meet their increased nutritional needs.

TARGET GROUPS:
The professional fishermen of the lagoons of Lefkada, ordinary citizens, environmental protection associations in the area of ​​interest.