The Shoebill Stork
The Shoebill bird acquired its name from its “Monsterface”. For some it appears to be a typically Frantic Bird.”Shoebill stork is also known by the name of Whale-Headed storks. One of the interesting facts about this bird is that the shoe-bill bird hunt like a total boss of the marshlands and wetlands.The Shoebill will stand there, like a statue, and wait for some poor lungfish, catfish, snake, Nile monitor lizards or even young crocodile to swim by. Then the bird will get its tongue round (which is five feet long) and forward, thus, opening its gigantic bill wide enough to submerge its target along with water, vegetation, mud and probably any other unfortunate fish.
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Other Name of Shoebills
Some other common names for the shoebill include:
The boat-bill
Bog-bird
Lesser lechwe-eater (implying to the shoebill’s apparent taste for lechwe, or aquatic antelope),
Abu markub, or “father of a slipper” in Arabic
Shoebill Bird Facts and Overview
Shoebill Bird Scientific Classification
Fun Facts
Shoebill bird is piscivorous, primarily eating fish.
Shoebills have been beloved birds for a long time and it’s also impossible not to be impressed by these colossals.
A shoebill stork appears in the artwork of the ancient Egyptians.
Arabs called the shoebill bird as Abu-Markhub, or “father of a slipper”
The bill of the bird looks like a footwear and that’s possibly how it acquired its name.
Shoebill bird can behead crocodiles
Shoebills are silent most of the time but make wonderful machine-gun noises.
Shoebills engage in “bill-clattering” when greeting another bird or when around the nest.
Shoebills are scary and loud and the last sound that a lot of poor monitor lizards ever hear.
Shoebill Fact-File Summary
This name Shoebill is in reference to the bird's very distinctive beak.
They are peculiar and almost dinosaur-like in appearance. Sometimes, from certain angles, they can appear rather frightening, gawking their long, razor sharp beak, with a hook at the tip.
Averting off the menacing look, they can also be tremendously cute, and ‘cartoon-like’. They have noticeable pale, blue-eyed genes that can make them look not really real.
Flapping when flying is one of the slowest of any birds, an estimate of merely 150 flaps per minute. Only bigger stalk species have slower flapping than the shoebill.
Their beaks can reach up to 7.4 inches in length to 9.4 inches in width, which helps them hunt for fish or snakes as long as 3.2 feet in size.
The razor sharp edges of its beak enable it to decapitate their prey quickly.
They are known to commonly behead their prey, before consuming whole.
A shoebill can sometimes benefit from the existence of hippos that disturb fish, and bulldoze paths through marshlands.
The shoebill can reap the benefit of the disturbed fish in the water and strike.
The bird is an ambush predator, who often stands still for a long time, motionless like a statue, before establishing a vicious attack to kill any prey that come within strike distance.
The shoebill commonly feeds at night, and is also recognized to stand on floating vegetation to hunt their prey.
The shoebill prefers areas of poorly oxygenated water. This induces the fish living in the water to surface for air, commonly that increases the possibility of the shoebill striking and capturing its prey.
The Shoebill is generally silent, but they are known to bang their bills loudly during courtship or greeting that sound a little like a machine gun.
Bill-clattering is a typical behavior of real shoebill storks. They can emit a high pitched whine, and even make cow-like ‘moo’ noises.
Shoebill is solitary in their breeding practices, with literally less than 3 nests per square kilometer.
The nesting shoebill will aggressively defend their territory between 1 to 1.5 square miles from other shoebill birds, and large birds.
Shoebill's chicks bully, fight and can kill their siblings when only a few weeks old.
The older and bigger chick can often hurt a smaller chick, while their parents are away from the nest, ultimately compelling them to live away from the nest.
The shoebill female lays two eggs, however, only one ever survives.
The second egg is like a ‘back up’, in case something is wrong with the first egg.
The species has long fascinated civilizations. They may materialize in wall paintings and hieroglyphics of ancient Egyptians.
Unfortunately, the demand for shoebill birds in zoos or for private collection agents is tremendously high. There are reports that they are sold for US $10,000-$20,000, making them the most lucrative birds in the zoo trade.
The high price of shoebill bird selling encourages shady traders to seize the shoebill and sell to zoos or private collectors– declining the wild population size further.
Shoebills scarcely breed in captivity.
They are incredibly rare, that birding aficionados have to pay to go on specialist shoebill safaris and tours, to get a glimpse of the elusive, sought after birds in the wild.
Shoebill Bird Population
The shoebill population is specifically difficult to assess with accuracy, because of where they habitat and their elusive nature, but it has decreased – with estimates of 5,000 – 8,000 in total.
This is quite amusing but shoebill storks are involved in urohydrosis, the effective—if revolting—habit of pooping on their own legs to lower their body temperature. In fact, this feature confused taxonomists: In the past, some perceived that the shoebill’s habit put it within the family of true storks, because all true storks also utilize their own droppings to cool off.
Shoebill Bird Conservation Status
BirdLife International has listed it as vulnerable, due to habitat destruction, disturbance and poaching. A Shoebill has particular habitat needs for nesting, breeding, and hunting, and their marshes and swamps are steadily being metamorphosed into agricultural land, or pastures for cattle grazing.
Shoe-Shaped Bill
The shape of a bird’s beak is designed in a way that makes it feasible for eating specific types of food and offers a big clue as to what the chief source of food is. Shoebill birds have big bills that are shaped like a shoe and are an adaptation for holding and seizing the massive, slippery fish that it preys on. Its big bill ranges from 7.8 – 9.5 inches long and 4 – 4.8 inches wide. The razor-sharp, curved hook at the end of the bill allows them to pike its prey.
The size of their bill enables these birds to strike their prey in an innovative method called a ‘collapse.’ The birds stand in the water still and static, looking for food. Once the birds have perceived their prey, they lunge or fall forward onto the prey with their wings spread, dives down, the bill first, and bushwhack its prey.
The shoebill bird then clings up its head and crushes the sharp edges of its bill together to behead its prey. Simultaneously, water and vegetation was taken up at the time as the prey item spilled out from the edges of the bill.
FAQs on Shoebill
Q1. How Shoebills Earned Their Fierce Reputation?
Answer: Victorian photographers learnt the tough way that shoebills could be as mean as they looked. “The shoebill has the potential of inflicting a very vigorous bite,” “and is by no means a safe bird for a stranger unlearned of its ways to approach, a fact which we always have to captivate on amateur photographers fretful to get ‘snap-shots’ of Balaeniceps at close quarters. It has been surprising to see how quickly in some cases their fervor has waned, when (as requested) confronted with the large bird screaming shrill opposition and squatting down as if were about to spring, with gaping bill and half-spread wings.”
Q2. Are Shoebill Birds Marketed for Money?
Answer: Shoebill storks are worth thousands of dollars on the black market. As mentioned, shoebills scarcely breed in captivity: At minimum in the last hundred years, only two chicks have hatched. In present time’s zoos, all shoebills were either born there or were officially collected from the wild. Sadly, their scarcity and charisma have also made shoebills a sought-after bird for hunters in the illegal wildlife trade. As per the Audubon magazine, private agents in Saudi Arabia and Dubai will pay $10,000 or more for a live shoebill.
Q3. Are Shoebill Birds at the Risk of Extinction?
Answer: Shoebill birds are on the verge of getting extinct. The IUCN Red list approximates between 3300 and 5300 mature shoebills that live in the world today, and that number is gradually declining. The iconic birds are known to be threatened by a variety of anthropogenic forces, including loss of their swampy habitat from farming, livestock ranching, animal rearing & raising, fires, pollution, oil and gas exploration and more.
International wildlife groups as well as local conservationists are surveying shoebill habitats in Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, and South Sudan. They are also involved in patrolling the sites for poaching, but much more attention is required to safeguard shoebills.
Q4. Why have Shoebills Always Been a Rare Curiosity at Zoos?
Answer: During the 19th century, the government of Sudan made the shoebill a protected species, but that did not hold back the private collectors from trying to transport shoebills to zoos. Subsequent to that, the director of the Zoological Gardens in Giza, Egypt, brought three shoebills on a train from Khartoum to the gardens. The temperature rose up to 118°F and the irritated shoebills puked their dinners. Their diet of fresh fish never materialized, so the birds began to be fed with canned shrimp. Remarkably, the birds arrived at the Zoological Gardens in one piece and managed to survive in captivity for at least five years. At present, only a handful of zoos open to the public consist of shoebills, including the Pairi Daiza in Belgium, Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic, the Dallas World Aquarium and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Q5. What is One Unique Unknown Fact About the Shoebill Birds?
Answer: Apart from their death-dealing appearance, shoebills storks have the caliber that could make them win staring contests. Shoebills live in the vast swamps of the Nile watershed in eastern Africa. You really can’t mistake them for any other bird in the wildlife, for that they grow 4 to 5 feet tall, have an 8-plus-foot wingspan, bluish-gray plumage and their bill, which takes up a large amount of their face, making them look like a gigantic Dutch wooden clog. Shoebills can literally stand motionless for hours with their bills held down against their necks. Blessed with their golden eyes, the posture influences a very convincing death stare.
