Pelecanus rufescens
Silhouette: Oscar G. Miranda · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
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 |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Pink-backed Pelican sighting in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, based on 572 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 53rd most-seen of the 434 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Pink-backed Pelican in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, against about 20% in April and October, the lowest months. That is one of Queen Elizabeth National Park's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain against 150 mm in April.
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.
2nd of 23
Of the 23 parks where we can rate Pink-backed Pelican sightings, Queen Elizabeth National Park ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Lake Nakuru National Park (Kenya, about 60%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pink-backed Pelican is recorded against all the birds logged in Queen Elizabeth National Park (572 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.
