Facts About The Shoebill Stork Bird
Facts About The Shoebill Stork Bird
Vibrant Holiday Safaris gives you insight on the Shoebill which is a magnificent, unique, ancient-looking bird that is always looked for by tourists in Africa, especially in Uganda. The shoebill stork is referred to as the king whale head because of its head size and the Arabs call it Abu Maruk meaning the father of the shoe and others the flying shoe because of the unique bill.
Below are some of the facts about the shoebill stork;
Natural Habitat
The shoebill stork tends to settle in open areas, particularly in the vegetation formed by papyrus and tall grass around freshwater swamps, wetlands, lakes, and rivers. The shoebill stork is endemic to East and Central Africa and can be found in countries of Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zambia, and South Sudan.
Tourists have a chance of viewing the shoebill storks in the Mabamba swamp, along River Nile in Murchison Falls national park, Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary and Semuliki national park, and Lake Mburo national park.
Physical appearance
The shoebill stork mostly known as the ‘’whale head’’ is a tall bird with a height of about 4.5 feet and weighing about 7 kilograms.
The shoebill stork is grey in color with the outstanding feature of the shoe-shaped bill curved at the tip which the bird uses for cutting through food the beak is 10 inches long and used for both feeding and protection. it has long, slender large feet. The wings can spread up to 2.5 meters and flap about 150 times per minute which is bigger than the Shaquille O’Neal.
Facts About The Shoebill Stork Bird
Food and Diet
The shoebill stork is a carnivorous bird that mainly feeds on aquatic features with the supplement of the water snakes, frogs, turtles, and sometimes the young crocodiles when their mothers are not around with a very swift sharp, and hard break whereby when the prey is captured, it has no chance of escaping. The shoebill stork always does its hunting at the shallow ends of the wetland or the floating vegetation that is when it waits for the right moment to strike at the prey killing it immediately.
Social Habits
The shoebill stork is a solitary and quiet animal whereby the female and male come together during the time of mating, building the nesting area, and incubating the eggs. The shoebill stork lives for more than 35 years in the wild and the bird becomes sexually active at 3 to 4 years of age when the shoebill stork mating season is closer to the dry period than the wet season when it is safer for the nest and eggs.
The female bird lays between 1 to 3 eggs which incubate for about 30 days until they hatch when it has hatched, it takes about 2 months to start moving and standing on its own so the mother provides food for the young in the nest for 3 months when it will start looking for the food itself. The chicks make hiccup-like sounds to make the mother aware that they are hungry and they are quite competitive since they fight each other until the weakest is pushed off from the nest.
The shoebill bird is a quiet bird that makes days without making any noise apart from flapping the wings and when it makes the noise, it is ground checking which is most evident during the mating season when the adult male selects a mate by making a clapping sound to attract the female by scaring away any competitors and other animals. The two birds bow as assign of courtship something which is interesting and amazing to watch.
The shoebill stork does not fly for a long period of time since it flaps its wings only 150 times and flies up to 500 meters. The shoebill spends most of its time standing, hidden, and watching out for its prey and it is said that the shoebill can stand for hours without moving and the bills close to its neck. The shoebills always defecate on themselves in order to control the body temperature.
Conservation status
According to the IUCN list of birding thus making the shoebill stork a vulnerable species and during the population count, the number of the shoebill stork has reduced thus making it an endangered species and earning the name of the most sought bird in the habitats of Africa.
The estimated population in the whole world is about 5,000 since it is hard to estimate the actual population because of their way of life and they are easily killed by humans because of the encroachment by humans on the wetland.
The shoebill stork is considered bad luck by the fishermen on the shores of the lake or river which is a common myth with Uganda having 1,000 birds of the shoebill storks.
In conclusion, the shoebill storks are so interesting when you see the birds waiting for their prey and how it snatches it from the water and this is a very exciting experience for bird lovers on an Uganda Safari.
Facts About The Shoebill Stork Bird