The Srebarna Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in northeastern Bulgaria, near the village of the same name, 18 kilometers (11 mi) west of Silistra and two kilometers (1.2 mi) south of the Danube. It comprises Lake Srebarna and its surroundings and is an important wetland located on the Via Pontica, a bird migration route between Europe and Africa. As a result, it provides nesting and migratory habitat for many endangered bird species.

The Dalmatian pelican is the largest member of the pelican family, and perhaps the world's largest freshwater bird, although rivaled in weight and length by the largest swans. They are elegant soaring birds, with wingspans rivaling those of the great albatrosses, and their flocks fly in graceful synchrony. With a range spanning across much of Central Eurasia, from the Mediterranean in the West to the Taiwan Strait in the East, and from the Persian Gulf in the South to Siberia in the North, it is a short-to-medium-distance migrant between breeding and overwintering areas. No subspecies are known to exist over its wide range, but based on size differences, a Pleistocene paleosubspecies, P. c. palaeocrispus, has been described from fossils recovered at Binagady, Azerbaijan.