Pelican Panic!



My backlog is building up so I’ll try harder to pump out these blogposts but this one will be a bit on the shorter side. Apologies in advance as for the next few months my posts will be a bit non-linear since I’ve decided to write about the trips I’ve been most inspired about and this is definitely one of them. 

On January 17, Jac Senagan, a local guide based in Dumaguete, posted one of the most incredible vagrants in all my years of birding. A pelican seen in Tanjay Wetlands near Dumaguete in Negros Oriental. The ID wasn't yet fully confirmed and it was a choice between Spot-billed or Dalmatian Pelican. There had been random (Likely escapee) White Pelicans in the 2020s but the last true pelican seen in the PH was an Australian Pelican seen in General Santos in 2016, unfortunately like most large birds, it “allegedly” met an unfortunate end as it “allegedly” was “rescued” and has remained in captivity ever since where it is still “allegedly” alive. If it was a Spot-billed Pelican it would mean that this locally extirpated resident has made a reappearance after almost a century and if it were a Dalmatian Pelican this would only be the 2nd ever sighting in the Philippines since it was last seen in 2009 in a random lake in Leyte and eventually died. Either way this record was monumental. 

Admittedly, twitching this in Dumaguete is very pricey and cost-wise not the most financially responsible decision. Also, as someone who live in Hong Kong close to mainland Asia, I’ve already seen around half of my 200ish remaining Philippine lifers in Hong Kong and among those remaining 100, a good number of them are globally common  (and honestly easily findable in HK if I weren't so lazy) and not as unique so there’s really just a small handful of birds that truly pique my interest in a way that justifies taking last minute flights.

When Green-faced Parrotfinches showed up in May 2024 I had the foresight to make a list of birds that would warrant an unplanned purchase of a flight. The Philippine Twitch List which includes endemics and vagrants is as follows: 

And thankfully pelicans are on the list. While neither Pelican is globally rare, there’s something to be said about a pelican being seen in our home soil. Apart from the aforementioned Australian Pelican, there’s only been a couple of twitches in the country with the same magnitude as this species: Blue-winged Pitta in 2018, Hooded Crane in 2020, Cotton Pygmy Goose in 2021, Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Green-faced Parrotfinchin 2024. I wasn’t birding yet when the pitta showed up but in 2020 I decided against twitching the Cranes due to financial reasons. 6 years later I still feel a ton of regret on not twitching these cranes, moreso this was in March 2020 so it would’ve been nice to end the pre-pandemic normalcy with a top tier megalifer. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to see the next mega-twitches!

Jac had seen it again on January 20 and I decided to commit to the very expensive decision to twitch this bird on Jan 26 with Ens and Timmy. 

We had to cross a very ricketty bridge to get to the site


Unfortunately on January 22, the bird was not seen at all. We discussed amongst ourselves that no matter what we would try for the pelican on the 26th. Deep down I was already considering going to the Negros Striped Babbler site after just as a consolation . After all, this species is gigantic. How hard is it to miss? Over the next few days I waited anxiously for more news and thankfully, on January 25 Rob Hutchinson managed to find the bird nearby after a herculean effort. With more photos, we were finally able to get an ID of this species - it was a Dalmatian Pelican!! I only learned then that this species is actually the largest pelican in the world and had a massive size difference with spot-billed but when there’s no size comparison it’s quite difficult to ID. 

Fishponds of Tanjay


January 26 finally came and we got off to a rough start as Timmy almost missed the flight. As soon as we landed in Dumaguete, my heart started pounding. It would take almost an hour . The public has this image of a birder being a chill and easy going old person but I was the complete opposite of that although I am unfortunately getting up there in age. Thankfully, just a few minutes in I had spotted an absolutely gigantic bird on a fishpond. It was the Dalmatian Pelican! 

There’s been a worrying trend of people using AI to make birding captions that sound like errotic fanfiction but its sightings like these remind me of why it happens in the first place. It’s really so hard to communicate the actual amount of excitement seeing something like this that people try to outsource it to AI. It’s such a magical experience to see this after all the effort to get here and to have this humongous bird twice the size of a Philippine Eagle (average weight is 10-15 kg) right in front of you. I know I try to hype up every sighting but this felt like seeing a proper dinosaur for the first time ever. Its massive size and general weathered look made it seem so prehistoric a far cry from the magnificence and grace of a Philippine Eagle.  We caught it in flight a few times and it felt like seeing a pteradon as each wing flap seemed to have so much power but in a cumbersome way (if that makes sense) ! 


Pteradactyl!!!! 


Size comparison with a Whiskered Tern



Seeing a pelican right in the Philippines felt so out of place but just a century ago Spot-billed Pelicans were once a regular feature of Philippine wetlands. I can only imagine how it was just a hundred years ago with Sarus Cranes, Spot-billed Pelicans, Wooly-necked Storks and flocks of ducks and waders many times the number of what we see today. I realize too that even the Dalmatian Pelican was once regularly wintering in Hong Kong but like our Spot-billed Pelican is unfortunately no longer a feature of its wetlands. With how everything everywhere seems to proggressively get worse being close to this bird in the Philippines is an absolute privilege and one I absolutlely do not take for granted.

So damn happy!!!

Ngiting tagumpay with  Ens and Timmy
Filipino translation: A smile of victory


We stayed with the bird for a few more hours before we said our goodbye and thank yous! According to the locals, they had been seeing the pelican for a few weeks. We were supposed to head to the Negros Striped-babbler spot but I screwed up in navigation so instead I just was dropped off near the airport where I got a massage while waiting for my flight! 

Post-pelican Inasal

 I flew back to Manila and then to HK that day for a total of 3 flights in less than 20 hours. Thankfully I managed to meet up with my lovely partner Angel in the few hours in Manila to actually process just how special this sighting was but even for the next few days I would wake up something thinking "damn I actually saw the pelican" for the next few days. There aren’t that many birds that can get me that anxious and I don’t think we’ll have any vagrant as major as this one anytime soon although I look very much forward to the next big twitch! 

This bird would stay until January 31 never to be seen again, I can only hope this bird made it back to its breeding grounds. Thankfully the community knew about the bird and I'd like to believe that this bird managed to make it! 

So yeah, a lot of words to talk about this one single sighting of a single bird but this is twitching at its absolute best!!!


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Location: Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, Philippines

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