![]() Its nest is a large heap of sticks and may be 10–50 m above the ground. The species nests colonially in trees, reeds or low bushes along waterfronts as well as (less often) on the ground on sandy islands and in mangroves. These nests are re-used every year until the trees collapse, although the birds will normally remain in the area. Nesting trees have many nests built close together. mangroves), but will also roost on sandy islands, cliffs, coral reefs and sand-dunes. The species tends to roost and breed in trees (e.g. It may occur on alkaline and saline lakes and lagoons, and can sometimes be found along the coast in bays and estuaries (although seldom on open seashore). It prefers for freshwater lakes, swamps, large slow-flowing rivers, and seasonal pools but also frequents reservoirs, seasonally flooded land and flood-plains near river mouths. The pink-backed pelican is found in a range of aquatic habitats, but prefers quiet backwaters with shallow water, avoiding steep, vegetated lake banks. It shares its habitat with the great white pelican, which is generally larger and has white instead of greyish plumage. Breeding adults have long feather plumes on the head. The top of the bill is yellow and the pouch is usually greyish. The plumage is grey and white, with a pinkish hue on the back occasionally apparent (never in the deep pink of a flamingo). The bill is 30 to 38 cm (12 to 15 in) in length. It is a relatively small pelican, although by no means is it a small bird. Description Dorsal view showing characteristic pink back Pelecanus rufescens - MHNT Formation flying ![]() The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The specific epithet rufescens is Latin for "reddish". Latham had been sent a specimen from West Africa. 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. He placed it with the other pelicans in the genus Pelecanus and coined the binomial name Pelecanus rufescens. 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. It is a resident breeder in the swamps and shallow lakes of Africa and southern Arabia it has also apparently been extirpated from Madagascar. But have you ever seen them invert their pouch? No one is sure why they do it but it's thought it might be the pelican stretching to prepare for a big meal," it says.The pink-backed pelican ( Pelecanus rufescens) is a bird of the pelican family. "You've probably seen them expand it while feeding. The fibrous skin under a pelican's bill is called the "gular pouch," the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo tweeted. Once someone told me that pelicans pierce their own breast when they are starving so their chicks can feed on their blood. The way their body is shaped, their pouch under their beak stretches over their neck.which technically contains their spine, but it is not coming out of their body," Stiteler said. "All of those birds are yawning and stretching their head back. The top left photo actually shows a type of stork called a shoebill, she said, "although the Internet likes to call it the Murder Stork." Sharon Stiteler, a park ranger who has written books about birds, said via direct message on Twitter: "One of those birds isn't even a pelican." "That is what is really going on in those wild photos." ![]() they open big and wide and this tissue on the bottom mandible is getting stretched out over the neck," she explains in her video. "When these birds yawn - and I just mean yawn, as like, a big mouth stretch - they 'snake' their heads back. The most typical way birds cool down is by doing something that's akin to panting." "It's just doing a big stretch, perhaps after a meal or just because stretching feels good. "Birds cannot eject their internal organs under any circumstances," she told AFP by email. Kaeli Swift, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, where she teaches about ornithology and wildlife ecology, debunked the claim in a video on her YouTube channel. Other examples of the claim circulated on social media here and here. A screenshot of a Facebook post taken on March 15, 2021
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