Bird of the Week: The Shoebill
This post may contain affilitate links. This means if you click on the link and make a purchase, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Any opinions expressed are my own.
The Shoebill is unmistakably unique. It is gloriously different. It doesn’t care what you think. You should love it.
Name:
Common: Shoebill
Scientific: Balaeniceps rex
Where It Is Found:
The Shoebill only occurs in Africa. This species is found in unfragmented swamps and marshes of East Africa south to Zambia, and it’s not a migratory species. Many of the areas that are strongholds, especially South Sudan, aren’t really visited by birding companies and many other known populations are found in swamps that are simply difficult to access. So many times, they’re found in Uganda (by birders, at least).
The shoebill is listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Of course, there’s always potential for a species dependent upon unaltered wetlands to be badly impacted by agricultural needs and water diversions, which are principal threats to the shoebill.
Relationships:
The Shoebill is a riddle wrapped in a mystery, unraveled by an eggshell. And it is microscopic evidence in the eggshells, and now DNA, that places the shoebill with the pelicans. Well, it belongs to the Order Pelicaniformes at this point, anyway. Previously, it had been placed with storks, and you’ll often see it erroneously referred to as the “shoebill stork”.
Who can blame folks for getting this one wrong? It’s more than a little bit stork-ish. And then it’s also been grouped with the plume-sporting herons and egrets, which are also tall, wetland-associated wading birds.
Regardless of its relatives, the Shoebill stands alone, the sole extant member of the Family Balaenicipitidae and so certainly the only member of the Genus Balaeniceps. Its assumed closest relative, the pretty cool but far more abundant hamerkop, belongs to a different genus.
Distinguishing Features:
It’s tall. The adult is blue-grey with darker grey primaries. It has a bill that is shaped like a shoe.
Well, a clog, anyway. It’s a very large bill. Seriously, you’d be hard-pressed to mistake this bird.
Likes:
Standing still for almost absurd lengths of time, staring at the low-oxygen water and hoping for prey to surface.
Large areas of unfragmented freshwater marshes and swamps, especially with mixed stands of papyrus.
Lungfish, catfish, snakes and many other vertebrates it can scoop up with that fetching bill. It’s a big bill with a large gape, which gives it a huge built-in smile AND the ability to scoop up much larger prey than other wading birds.
But especially lungfish. It really, really seems to like lungfish.
A Note About Names:
As I mentioned before, the name of the Shoebill means “whale-headed”. Can you believe that? Rude.
This is an unbelievably eye-catching, adorably unique bird! Whale-headed, indeed!
Who even cares about the names, anyway? The specific epithet of the eastern mole is “aquaticus”. That’s right. The mole was assumed to be aquatic, due to the morphology of its feet. Its feet meant for digging, rather than swimming. So sometimes we get bad names when we name based on specimens and not the actual natural history of the critter!
I suppose we can just be thankful the shoebill wasn’t named after the first European that collected it?
