Creepy Bird of the Month #1: The Shoebill

Welcome to the first installment of what will be a weekly blog post. The Creepy Bird of the Month takes a look at some of the truly ugly and sometimes, downright evil looking birds from around the world.

The creepy bird to have the honor of being the inaugural post is the Shoebill.
The Shoebill (Balaeniceps Rex) also known as Whalehead or Shoe-billed Stork, is a very large, Stork-like bird from Africa. This creeper is truly wicked looking. With a HUGE bill and mangy body, this thing looks like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock classic.



This large African wading bird, is a single species that constitutes the family Balaenicipitidae (order Balaenicipitiformes, Ciconiiformes, or Pelecaniformes). The species is named for its clog-shaped bill, which is an adaptation for catching and holding the large, slippery lungfish, its favorite food. This big bird also eats turtles, fish, and young crocodiles. Shoebills stand about 115 cm (3.8 feet) tall. They are entirely gray, with broad wings and long legs. The head is large in proportion to the body, and the eyes are also exceptionally large. The shoebill claps the mandibles of its bill together as a display, producing a loud, hollow sound. Like herons and pelicans, shoebills fly with the head held back against the body. They nest on either floating vegetation or solid mounds and lay one to three white eggs, which hatch in about 30 days. Shoebills inhabit swampy regions in and around the White Nile area of northeastern Africa.

The taxonomic placement of the shoebill is a matter of some debate. It has traditionally been grouped with the herons, storks, and ibises (order Ciconiiformes) on the basis of behavioral and morphological studies. However, other morphological and genetic analyses suggest a closer affiliation with pelicans (family Pelecanidae) and with the hammerhead, another African waterbird whose taxonomic position is unclear. The composition of both the Ciconiiformes and the Pelecaniformes is, in any case, contested as well. Shoebills are sometimes placed in their own order, Balaenicipitiformes.*

Well, there you go, kicking off our first installment with a real evil looking bird. I hope you can sleep tonight after seeing this ugly critter. Next week we will take a look at another creeper and see if we can find an even uglier specimen. If you've got suggestions for a Creepy Bird of the Week, please comment and I will post it in a future installment of Creepy Bird of the Week.

Happy...or should I say CREEPY birding!

*Sourced from http://www.britannica.com/animal/shoebill