8 facts about the shoe-billed stork

Birdwatchers who visit Uganda want most of all to see the shoe billed stork. The bird hides in freshwater swamps that stretch across Uganda, South Sudan, eastern Congo, Rwanda, western Tanzania and northern Zambia. Uganda gives the surest views - the places to look are Mabamba Swamp, Lake Mburo National Park besides Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The bird owes its name to a beak that looks like an old wooden shoe. People also call it whalehead or shoebeak. Adults wear plain gray feathers - young birds wear brown. A full grown bird stands four to five feet high and has legs about eighteen centimetres long. Males weigh roughly five kilograms - females weigh about six. The beak has sharp edges that cut off heads or tear flesh - the bird shakes plants off the prey before it swallows.

The shoe bill lives alone plus stays quiet - it surprises prey with a trick called “freeze-and-grab.” It eats lungfish, catfish, tilapia, snakes, baby crocodiles, turtles, smaller birds, snails and frogs. It stands motionless for hours and looks like a statue. To cool down, it excretes liquid onto its own legs, a habit shared by other storks.

Both parents pile reeds into a floating nest. The female lays one to three eggs - the parents sit on them for thirty days. The young stay on the nest until they fly at one hundred but also five days old and breed once they reach three years.

A shoe billed stork survives thirty five to fifty years. It does not migrate - yet it moves to new swamps when food runs low or people disturb the area. Between five thousand and eight thousand remain as well as the species sits on the endangered list because people drain swamps and trap the birds.

Even with a heavy body, the bird rises on wings that stretch two and a half metres. In the air it pulls the head close to the body or steers with slow wingbeats.