The Shoebill is elusive and not very social. The first scientific documentation of the species only occurred in the late 19th century. The truth is, not much is known about this formidable bird. The over-exaggerated beak simply beggars belief this humongous appendage resembles the iconic Dutch clog rather than anything a bird might use to eat it’s meal, let alone something it would carry on its face! The Shoebill stork is a rare and critically endangered bird (whose population is documented to be less than 5000 in the wild). With long, spindly blue-gray legs that match its blue-grey feathers, the Shoebill stands almost 55 inches above the swampland mud that it calls home. The African Shoebill stork looks more like something out of a comic book than a bird you might luckily encounter on an African safari.ĭistributed in the swampy marshes of Uganda, Rwanda, Western Tanzania and Zambia, this rare bird might very well have walked out of the dinosaur era, as is.Ī rather ominous capture of this bizarre bird | Image credit: The New Statesman Deep in the remote, dense and little-explored swamps of Africa lives an unusual bird with a shoe for a face.

Are shoebill storks friendly to humans