A new bird species, the Dalmatian pelican, has been spotted in Belarus, the public association "Aхова птушак Бацькаўшчыны" (APB) informed BELTA.
A new bird species, the Dalmatian pelican, has been spotted in Belarus, the public association "Aхова птушак Бацькаўшчыны" (APB) informed BELTA.
"A new bird species for our country, the Dalmatian pelican, has been discovered in Belarus. Fisherman Alexander Rozin posted a photograph of the bird on Facebook, which he took on January 10 near the Chigirinskoye Reservoir on the borders of the Kirovsky and Bykhovsky districts of the Mogilev region during a fishing competition. According to Alexander, more than 40 people, participants of the competition, saw the bird that day. No one suspected that they were looking at a new bird species for Belarus. The significance of the moment was later appreciated by experts not of fish, but of birds. Ornithologists identified the discovery in the photo: it was a Dalmatian pelican, a bird new to the country," the APB explained.
The APB reported that on January 12, the day after the photograph that excited birdwatchers appeared, a group of ornithologists from the APB and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus set out in search of the pelican. "Despite the weather, the ornithologists found the bird and confirmed: an adult Dalmatian pelican was swimming in the section of the Drut River below the Chigirinskoye Reservoir, which had thawed. The pelican was both swimming and resting on the bank. The encounter with the pelican occurred during the height of cyclone 'Daniella': it was raining and snowing. The pelican stoically endured the hardships of the Belarusian winter; the ornithologists noticed no weakness in the bird," the specialists reported.
"It is impossible to say definitively where the bird was before the fateful photo session. Sometimes, during migration, birds choose the wrong direction. It is possible that the Dalmatian pelican was wintering in a neighbouring country and recently decided to change its location. According to fishermen, there was no open water at Chigirinka the day before the photo," notes APB Director Alexander Vintchevsky, reassuring everyone who is concerned about the handsome Dalmatian pelican in the harsh Belarusian winter. According to Georgian ornithologists, pelicans in the Caucasus remain in their nesting areas even at temperatures of minus 15 degrees Celsius. And Dalmatian pelicans are particularly frost-resistant.
The Belarusian Ornithological Society (BOS) explained that in 2015, curly pelicans were observed in March in Germany, in March and August in Poland, and in May and July in Lithuania. These are countries where this species, like in our country, is a vagrant and is encountered very rarely, most often by chance. Two species of pelicans nest in Europe, and the curly pelican has not been seen in Belarus for almost 150 years of ornithological development.
Currently, the list of bird species in Belarus includes 325 species. Following the meeting of the Belarusian Ornithofaunistic Commission (BOFC), the curly pelican will be added to the list. Prior to this, a new bird species for Belarus, the bright warbler, was discovered in September 2014 by ornithologist Denis Kittel.
The public association "Aхова птушак Бацькаўшчыны" (Association for the Protection of Birds of the Fatherland) is the largest non-governmental environmental organization in Belarus and the national partner of the largest international network of environmental organizations, BirdLife International. BOS has over 3,500 members and supporters, about 120 school clubs, and 14 branches throughout the country.