Shoebill

The shoebill is a large, stork-like wading bird found in the freshwater swamps of central tropical Africa, from South Sudan to Zambia, named for its enormous, bulbous, shoe-shaped bill with a sharp hooked tip. It stands well over a metre tall with grey plumage and a slow, deliberate manner, and it hunts by standing motionless for long periods in shallow water before striking with startling speed and force at prey such as lungfish, catfish, eels and even young crocodiles or small mammals. Its bill is powerful enough to decapitate sizable prey, and it often collapses aquatic vegetation to reach fish sheltering beneath it. Shoebills are solitary and territorial outside the breeding season, nesting on platforms of trampled vegetation in remote, undisturbed marshland, and pairs typically raise only a single chick to fledging even when two eggs are laid. Habitat loss, hunting and disturbance from human activity have reduced its numbers, and the species is classified as vulnerable.