Its length from the beak to the tail is between 100 cm to 140 cm. The shoebill’s weight ranges from 4 kg to 7 kg, whereby, females weigh 4.9 kg while males weigh 5.6 kg. However, some species grow as tall as 152 cm. The bird is large and tall, ranging from 110 cm to 140 cm in height. The shoebill is found in freshwater swamps and marches in eastern-central Africa. The bird earned its name as it has Shoe shaped Bill. It does not store any personal data.Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex), is also known as Shoe-billed stork or Whale head.
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Co-parenting by habit, means they build their nests together and take turns turning and sitting on the two eggs that are produced a year. They are often silent but will ‘bill clatter’ sometimes when nesting or greeting. The nest site will be about three meters wide and up to nine feet deep with part of the next submerged.
Breeding couples will staunchly defend territories of up to four square meters from other shoebills. Whereas storks such as herons will nest in colonies, it is rare to find more than three shoebill nests in one square kilometer. Shoebills are more solitary than other storks. National Geographic describes their hunting technique as ‘collapsing which involves lunging or falling forward on their prey’. Their ‘whale’ beaks are sometimes used to dig into mud beds – homes (their favourite prey) of, lung fish, digging them out of their burrows. There are also reports of them eating rodents. Their diet is not limited to lung fish these great storks will hunt many fish (larger prey than other wading birds) and also small lizards such as young crocodiles and turtles. They do hunt in deeper water where there are beds of aquatic vegetation to stand upon. They can often be found where waters are poorly oxygenated so fish often need to rise to the surface. It is often stationary, appearing statue like, relying on keen vision to hunt. The shoebill is non migratory, unless its habitat is threatened, which happens by the activities of man. The shoebill feeds on small fish like most other storks such as lungfish.
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