This huge bird is by a slight margin the largest of the pelican species and one of the largest living flying bird species. It measures in length, in weight and in wingspan. Its median weight is around , which makes it perhaps the world's heaviest flying bird species, although the largest individuals among male bustards and swans may be heavier than the largest individual Dalmatian pelican. More recently, six male Dalmatians were found to average and four females , around the same average weight as the great white pelican ("Pelecanus onocrotalus") and slightly lighter than mean body masses from other huge birds such as the trumpeter swan ("Cygnus buccinator") or Andean condor ("Vultur gryphus"). A mean estimated body mass for the Dalmatian pelican of was also published, around the same mass as the aforementioned largest swan and condor. It is either the heaviest or one of the heaviest birds native to Europe, its closest rival in mass being mute swans ("Cygnus olor"), which weighs on average around , followed closely by the cinereous vulture ("Aegypius monachus") (whose average weight is not known) and the whooper swans ("Cygnus cygnus"), averaging at just shy of , and the great white pelican. These same five species are probably rank as the largest flying birds in Asia as well, alongside the Himalayan vulture ("Gyps himalayensis"). It also appears to have one of the largest wingspans of any living bird, rivaling those of the great albatrosses ("Diomedea" ssp., in particular the two largest species, the wandering albatross and southern royal albatross) and the great white pelican. These four species are the only modern birds with verified wingspans that range over .