Hunts by standing motionless in papyrus then toppling forward in a 'collapse strike' onto lungfish
Shoebill — a sit-and-wait ambush predator.
Nature · Birds
Shoebill
Vulnerable · 3,300–5,300 mature individuals (BirdLife)
Balaeniceps rex — Balaenicipitidae
A towering slate-grey waterbird of central African papyrus swamps, standing up to 1.4 m tall and carrying an enormous straw-coloured bill shaped like a Dutch clog and tipped with a sharp hook. It hunts by standing motionless for long periods then toppling forward onto lungfish, catfish and even baby crocodiles. The only member of its family, it is best sought in the Bangweulu swamps of Zambia and Uganda's Mabamba Bay.
How to spot them
- ▸A vast, bulbous, pale bill up to 24 cm long, ending in a sharp nail-like hook, deeper than any other bird's
- ▸Blue-grey plumage, a small shaggy crest at the nape, pale eyes set far forward giving binocular vision
- ▸Habitually stock-still for many minutes in papyrus, then a violent lunging 'collapse' onto prey
- ▸Bill-clattering like a machine gun at the nest — its main sound; adults are otherwise near-silent
- ▸In flight, the neck is retracted like a heron's, and the wings are broad with very slow flaps
How to know it
Its scientific name means 'whale-head king', and its clog-shaped bill is the deepest of any living bird
Shoebill, Balaeniceps rex.
The sole living member of its family, once put with the storks and now placed with pelicans in the Pelecaniformes
Shoebill (Balaenicipitidae).
Greets keepers and mates with a rapid machine-gun clattering of the mandibles
Shoebill bill-clattering; adults are otherwise almost voiceless.
A resident of Bangweulu and Mabamba Bay papyrus swamps, with 3,300–5,300 mature birds left
Shoebill — Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
Usually raises only one chick: the stronger nestling normally kills or outcompetes its sibling
Shoebill siblicide.
Quick-fire facts
- •Height 110–140 cm, wingspan 230–260 cm, weight 4–7 kg; the bill can exceed 24 cm long and 20 cm wide
- •Described by John Gould in 1850 from a specimen sent from the White Nile
- •BirdLife International puts the population at 3,300–5,300 mature individuals and declining; IUCN Red List: Vulnerable
- •Range: South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and the Central African Republic
- •Diet is dominated by lungfish (Protopterus) and catfish; it also takes water snakes, frogs, monitor lizards and young crocodiles
- •Parents carry water in the bill to pour over eggs and chicks to cool them
- •The Arabic name abu markub means roughly 'father of a shoe'
- •Threats include nest disturbance and burning of papyrus, drainage, and capture of chicks for the international zoo trade
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- BirdLife International — Shoebill