Birds are giving to the Danube Delta, beside the attractive and characteristic landscape the fame it had gained into the world. Out of 280 bird species it's estimated that 177 species are hatching species and 103 are not; 44 hatching species are sedentary and 133 migratory. The non-hatching species are winter guests and only passing over in spring and autumn. By its geographical origin the birds are belonging to the following types: pontical, sarmathian, Black Sea, east Elba and Carpathian.
Among the 280 species of birds, law protects 10 of them; some being declared nature monuments, because they threatened to disappear. The protected birds can be divided in two clusters, by the color of their plumage: white birds (common and Dalmatian pelicans, spoonbill, big and small egrets, silent and singing swan) and polychrome birds (gruidae, wood-pecker, white and red start, white tailed eagle). Another three species focus the scientist's attention in order to be protected: crane, danubian falcon and land's bird. In the ecosystem of marshy and flooding surfaces we could find also tufted duck, ferruginous duck, red crested pochard, mallard, graylag goose, pygmy cormorant, purple heron, great white egret, glossy ibis, etc.
We can mention also wintering species like red breasted goose, swans, wild ducks, and bald coots.
Besides the resident species, 80 other species of birds from Asia, Africa and Northern areas of Europe come to hatch. Red breasted geese, long-tailed ducks, whooper swans, black-throated divers spend winters here. By spring time come pelicans, egrets, purple herons, spoonbills, curlews and others. White-fronted geese, ospreys, cranes, red-legged geese etc. pass in their way through the Danube Delta. Here are also some rare or near extinct species such as the griffon vulture, the teal, the sheld duck and the ruddy sheld duck.The Dalmatian pelican and the white pelican, the sheld duck and the ruddy sheld duck, the curlew, the bee-eater, the roller, the white-tailed eagle, the black-winged stilt, the great white egret, the spoonbill, the cormorant, the eagle, the falcon, the black-throated diver, the eagle-owl, the mute swan and the whooper swan are protected by law.