Dalmatian pelicans have flocked to spend the winter around a dam in the Sakar Mountain in Southeastern Bulgaria. Such birds have never been seen in this area before, Bulgarian ecologists enthuse. They estimate the country's population listed as threatened in a Red Data Book to some 70-90 breeding pairs. The Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) is classified today as vulnerable within its whole geographical distribution, from Yugoslavia to Mongolia. Its present world breeding population is estimated at 3,215 - 4,280 pairs, more than 80 percent being in the former Soviet republics Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and in the Russian Federation. In 1996, the European Commission geared an action plan to preserve the population of this rare bird across the continent. Sakar's Dalmatian pelicans were spotted by ornithologists that took part in an international mid-winter count of water-loving birds that took place in Bulgaria January 11-12. The teams of specialists and volunteers have also counted more than eighty swans across Bulgaria. Along the Maritsa river, they have again registered the presence of great and pygmy cormorants (Philacrocorax carbo/Philacrocorax pygmeus). These birds have been seen around the river that flows through Bulgaria and Greece for some years in row. The largest colony at Maritsa consists of 631 cormorants.

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