Sergey Dereliev

The most widely distributed pelican, with a highly fragmented breeding distribution from eastern Europe to Central Asia, and across Africa. In winter, found from the Sahel to South Africa, but not in regions largely covered by tropical forests. European populations are migratory.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendIncreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		18700-40700,27400
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Great White Pelican

Ringing recoveries document the N-S orientated flyway of European pelicans from the East of Europe down the Nile Valley to East Africa, visiting the Middle East on the way. There is a re-encounter just in the southern hemisphere. Tracking data concern birds tagged in Israel, and document their further migration southward (Efrat et al. 2019).

Recoveries by Condition for Great White Pelican

As for most species, old recoveries are mainly of dead birds (44%), a proportion that decreased to 22% after 1990, as recovery numbers bumped after 2010 due to colour ringing projects.

Annual Movements for Great White Pelican

European migratory great white pelicans move southward by the straits of Bosphorus, to further fly along the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East, before following the Nile river to reach the large inland lakes in Kenya and Tanzania. There are however numerous winter recoveries along the way, though it is not possible to decide if these are attesting regular wintering along the route, or unusual records obtained because of high recovery probability due to observation effort.

The migration routes of pelicans tagged in Israel were similar, especially when crossing the Gulf of Suez and along the Nile River, though one bird made a long stopover at the Nile Delta west of the main route (Efrat et al. 2019). The pelicans migrated 3 days over the desert before reaching the Nile River, and then followed the river south until it bends west, where they crossed the desert again.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Great White Pelican

Some pelicans stay in South East Europe, Turkey or Israel in winter, but migrants are on the move in September. There is no useful ringing recovery to document the spring migration.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Efrat, R., Hatzofe, O., Nathan, R.2019 . Landscape-dependent time versus energy optimisations in pelicans migrating through a large ecological barrier. Functional Ecology 33 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13426) : 2161–2171

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