Shoebill storks are listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as apart from poaching them, people also destroy the wetland habitats to build or channel water, some capture the chicks for exotic pets, and some fishermen believe the birds will harm their livelihoods. They are silent and solitary, and even breeding pairs will feed at opposite ends of their territory. These birds are partially nocturnal, so they can be a bit sluggish, but they are powerful flyers and soarers. The machine-gun- or jackhammer-like sound is done by young shoebills as well. They have a strange habit known as “bill-clattering”, done by adult birds to greet each other in the nest. The bird’s bill has the same curvature of the footwear for which it is named and it is huge, the third-longest in the world!
The average height of these strange-looking birds rivals that of children, from 3.5 feet to 4.6 feet and their wingspan is twice as long. Their primary habitat is in the wetlands of central Africa, stretching from Sudan in the north all the way to Zambia in the south. They sometimes use the big beak to dig into pond-bottom mud to extract lungfish from their aestivation burrows.Īs their favorite prey include fish and reptiles, these birds prefer shallow, wet areas with vegetation. When there’s nothing but lungfish or crocodile left, the Shoebill will give it a quick decapitation with the sharp edges of the bill.” “Clamping down on its prey, the bird will start to swing its massive head back and forth, tipping out whatever stuff it doesn’t want to eat.
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