Wildlife
There is no mistaking Africa’s secretive shoebill with its enormous bill and almost prehistoric looks. These large stork-like birds inhabit the continent’s central and eastern tropical swamps and marshes. Shoebills particularly like poorly oxygenated shallow water as fish surface more often, becoming easy prey for a stalking shoebill with a rapid strike in the tall vegetation.
Shoebills are mostly silent and solitary birds, only coming together when food is scarce or to breed. Shoebill breeding coincides with the dry season which may help prevent their large flat nests from flooding. Like some other storks they pour water over the nest to keep the eggs cool.
Did you know?
Shoebills share similarities with pelicans, herons, hamerkops and storks.
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Prehistoric bird
A shoebill roams the swamps of Africa for fish to take back to her chicks.
A shoebill roams the swamps of Africa for fish to take back to her chicks.
Insurance policy
The youngest shoebill chick is an insurance in case the oldest doesn’t make it.
The youngest shoebill chick is an insurance in case the oldest doesn’t make it.
The Shoebill can be found in a number of locations including: Africa. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Shoebill distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
The Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) also known as Whalehead or Shoe-billed Stork, is a very large stork-like bird. It derives its name from its massive shoe-shaped bill. Although it has a somewhat stork-like overall form and has previously been classified in the order Ciconiiformes, its true affiliations with other living birds is ambiguous. Some authorities now reclassify it with the Pelecaniformes. The adult is mainly grey while the juveniles are browner. It lives in tropical east Africa in large swamps from Sudan to Zambia.
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Paternal care
Helpless young
Ambush predator
Carnivorous
Adapted to flying
Acoustic communication
Maternal care
Monogamous
Egg layer
Predator
Territorial
Visual communication