Photo copyright: AS/monacoeye • Do not copy • Images: Lake Victoria • Oct 2009

Bird name: Hamerkop
Latin: Scopus umbretta
Other: Hammerkop
Family: Scopidae ? • Hamerkop

The taxonomy of the Hamerkop is unclear. These photos were taken near Lake Victoria by André.

Other names for this bird: Hammerkop, Hammerkopf, Hammerhead, Hammerhead Stork, Umbrette, Umber Bird, Tufted Umber and AnvilheadMore photos...

Photos copyright: monacoeye • Danube Delta, Romania • May 2009 • Do not copy without permission

Bird name: White Pelican
Latin: Pelecanus onocrotalus
Other: Great White Pelican • Eastern White Pelican
Family: Pelecanidae • Pelicans

Half of all White Pelicans breed in the Danube Delta, where they can be seen in great numbers, spiralling up on thermals, high in the sky, or swimming in the Black Sea and lakes in the Delta, often with cormorants.

The White Pelican has pink lores and dark irises, which distinguish it from the rarer Dalmatian Pelican. The White Pelican also has a thick black trailing stripe to on the wing. Pictured below in “more photos” is one unusual individual with both white and black feathers.


More photos...

Photos copyright: RP/monacoeye • St Barths • 2008 • Do not copy without permission

Bird name: Brown Pelican
Latin: Pelecanus occidentalis
Other:
Family: Pelecanidae • Pelicans

Pictured above is the Caribbean Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis occidentalis, sent in by Robert Paylor in St Barths.

The Brown Pelican, the smallest of the pelicans, is found in North, Central and South America.More photos...

Photo copyright: monacoeye • Do not copy • Images: Ubatuba Florianopolis Brazil

Bird name: Magnificent Frigatebird
Latin: Fregata magnificens
Other: Tesourão (Br) • Fragata magnífica (Es)
Family: Fregatidae • Frigatebirds

The Magnificent Frigatebirds I saw often seemed to accompany other birds - stealing fish from Brown Boobies in Santa Catarina, or soaring on thermals with Black Vultures in Ubatuba.More photos...

Photo copyright: monacoeye • Do not copy • Images: Florianopolis Brazil

Bird name: Brown Booby
Latin: Sula leucogaster
Other: Atobá-pardo (Br) • Alcatraz pardo (Es)
Family: Sulidae • Boobies

A few shots of Brown Boobies near the beach in Floraniopolis. They flew in from the ocean in the evening and started diving into the water in the bay pulling out fish. Soon Magnificent Frigatebirds appeared. The latter put an end to their fun, stealing the fish from their beaks and harassing them so that the Brown Boobies left.More photos...

Photos copyright: monacoeye • Danube Delta, Romania • May 2009 • Do not copy without permission

Bird name: Pygmy Cormorant
Latin: Phalacrocorax pygmaeus
Other: Cormoranul mic (Romanian)
Family: Phalacrocoracidae • Cormorants

The Pygmy Cormorant is the smallest of all 40 odd Cormorant species. It is about 50 cm long - in comparison the Great Cormorant is about 80 cm.

Its main breeding area is the Danube Delta and it is classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN list due to loss of habitat.

There are currently an estimated 4000 breeding pairs in the Delta of a total of about 7000 in Europe.

The Pygmy Cormorant is mostly black with small white tufts during breeding season.

It can be distinguished from the Great Cormorant by size if both are seen together (pic below, Pygmy on right of tree). Its bill is much smaller, its tail is proportionally longer due its small body size, and it has no yellow markings on its face. It can also have a brownish neck and looks generally more like a duck or crow than the Great Cormorant does.More photos...

Photos copyright: monacoeye • Brazil • Do not copy without permission

Bird name: Neotropic Cormorant
Latin: Phalacrocorax brasilianus
Other: Olivaceous Cormorant • Phalacrocorax olivaceus • Biguá • Cormorán Neotropical • Cormorán • Cormorán Negro • Cuervo de Mar • Yeco • Pato Yeco • Patillo
Family: Phalacrocoracidae • Cormorants

The Neotropic Cormorant is the main cormorant in Brazil, widespread.
More photos...

Photos copyright: monacoeye • Danube Delta, Romania • May 2009 • Do not copy without permission

Bird name: Great Cormorant
Latin: Phalacrocorax carbo
Other: Great Black Cormorant • Black Cormorant • Black Shag (NZ) • Grand Cormoran (Fr) • Cormoran Commun • Cormoranul mare (Ro)
Family: Phalacrocoracidae • Cormorants

Photo: monacoeye • Mediterranean • 2009

The Great Cormorant is a large bird, widespread in Europe, Asia and Australasia.

The European bird turns white around the head and chest during courtship, with a white patch near the thigh. Juveniles are brown with whitish stomachs. Adults have a yellow stripe below the eye spanning both halves of the back of the jaw, a white cheek, and irises are green.

Great Cormorants can form very large flocks and were seen below fishing with Pelicans in the sea off the Danube Delta with gulls in attendance above.

They swim very low in the water, often with only necks and head sticking out, and famously dry their outstretched wings in the sun.

Cormorants in general, or shags as they are also called, are probably distant relatives of the Pelicans and under the Sibley-Ahlquist system fall under Ciconiiformes.


More photos...

Photos copyright: monacoeye • Danube Delta, Romania • May 2009 • Do not copy without permission

Bird name: Dalmatian Pelican
Latin: Pelecanus crispus
Other: Pélican frisé
Family: Pelecanidae • Pelicans

The Dalmatian Pelican, a key species for the Delta, is quite a rare bird, with IUCN conservation status classed as Vulnerable. There are reportedly about 1000 breeding pairs remaining, scattered across relatively few sites in south-eastern Europe.

Fortunately I saw about a dozen birds over three days in the Danube. Sometimes flying overhead, sometimes with White Pelicans standing on a spit, sometimes on lakes and waterways.

Whereas the White Pelican is seen in large flocks, the Dalmatian Pelican is usually seen in ones, twos and threes. It is distinguishable from the White Pelican by lack of pink colouring, especially lack of pink lores, grey, not dark, irises and lack of thick black wing stripe.

The birds I saw all had dirty white matted hair on the back of their necks - though one characteristic of the Dalmatian Pelican is much longer, curly, hair on the neck.

In the photo below, taken on the Black Sea, the first, second and fourth pelicans from the left are Dalmatian; the other two, with thinner pinkish necks, are White Pelicans.More photos...