This is the hilarious moment a bird playfully pecks at a man who is taking a selfie, apparently wanting to join in on the shot.

The man, who was not named, had approached the red-crowned crane when he spotted it in a field in Yancheng, in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province.

He then took out his phone and stood in front of the tall bird in the middle of the grass and attempted to take a selfie.

But as he held up his phone, the crane suddenly began pecking at his trousers. The man seemingly did not sense the gentle poking at first, and then the bird pecked his ear in an apparent attempt to be noticed.

The clip, shared on 5th November Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, boasts more than one million likes and over 180,000 comments.

Many amused netizens joked that the bird decided to grab the man’s attention so he would adjust the camera and snap a nicer photo of the two.

One user titled ‘Xiao Xiaoyanyan’ commented: “Crane: I asked you to take a better picture of me, aren’t you listening?”

And user ‘Allison’ wrote: “Bird: Did you not hear me calling?”

The red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis), also known as the Japanese crane, is native to East Asia and one of the rarest crane species in the world.

Characterised by its large stature, the red-crowned crane boasts a white plumage with contrasting black wingtips.

The defining feature is its red crown atop a bare, white head.