Pelecanus rufescens
Silhouette: Oscar G. Miranda · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The pink-backed pelican (Pelecanus rufescens) is a bird of the pelican family. It is a resident breeder in the swamps and shallow lakes of Africa and southern Arabia; it has also been extirpated from Madagascar. The pink-backed pelican was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other pelicans in the genus Pelecanus and coined the binomial name Pelecanus rufescens. Gmelin based his description on the "red-backed pelican" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had been sent a specimen from West Africa. The specific epithet rufescens is Latin for "reddish". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
It is a relatively small pelican, although by no means is it a small bird. Its length is from 125 to 155 cm (49 to 61 in), wingspan is 2.15–2.9 m (7.1–9.5 ft) and body mass is from 4 to 7 kg (8.8 to 15.4 lb). The bill is 30 to 38 cm (12 to 15 in) in length. The plumage is grey and white, with a pinkish hue on the back occasionally... Wikipedia →
Call0:08
Senegal · 2023
© Alain Malengreau · XC862719 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Recording0:13
South Africa · 2024
© Mahomed Desai · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 5 | Virunga National Park | 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| 6 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Lake Manyara National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Gorongosa National Park | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 10 | Liwonde National Park | 🇲🇼 Malawi | |
| 11 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 12 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 13 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 14 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 15 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 16 | Lake Mburo National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 17 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 18 | Kafue National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 19 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 20 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 21 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 22 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 23 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Pink-backed Pelican sighting in Hwange National Park on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 297th most-seen of the 308 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pink-backed Pelican in Hwange National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July to May, the lowest months. That is one of Hwange National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 150 mm in January.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pink-backed Pelican sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
17th of 23
Of the 23 parks where we can rate Pink-backed Pelican sightings, Hwange National Park ranks 17th at under 5%. The best odds are in Lake Nakuru National Park (Kenya, about 60%), Queen Elizabeth National Park (Uganda, about 30%) and uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 20%).
Same order: Pelecaniformes
The closest relatives of the Pink-backed Pelican that you can see in Hwange National Park (order Pelecaniformes, Pelicans, Herons, Ibises, and Allies) are Grey Heron (about 30%), African Sacred Ibis (about 20%) and Hamerkop (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pink-backed Pelican is recorded against all the birds logged in Hwange National Park (5 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
