![]() It has been suggested that the enigmatic African fossil bird Eremopezus was a relative too, but the evidence for that is very spurious indeed.Īll that is known of Eremopezus is that it was a very large, probably flightless bird with a flexible foot, allowing it to handle either vegetation or prey. Paludavis from the Early Miocene of the same country.Goliathia from the early Oligocene of Egypt and.So far, two fossil relatives of the shoebill have been described: The Shoebill and the Hammerkop ( Scopus umbretta) are the “missing links” that connect pelicans and storks, and including the pelican lineage in the Ciconiiformes expresses this more adequately than other treatments do. Since cormorants and relatives are probably not actually Pelecaniformes, a solution adopted by some modern authors is to merge the “core” Pelecaniformes with the Ciconiiformes. A recent DNA study suggests they are part of the Pelecaniformes (a possibly invalid order of medium-sized and large waterbirds found worldwide)īut actually, the dispute has turned out to be mainly one of where to draw the boundary between Ciconiiformes and Pelecaniformes, or whether to draw it at all. More recently, the shoebill has been considered to be closer to the pelicans (based on anatomical comparisons Mayr, 2003) or the herons (based on biochemical evidence Hagey et al., 2002). Traditionally allied with the storks (Ciconiiformes), it was retained there in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy which lumped a massive number of unrelated taxa into their “Ciconiiformes”. The Shoebill is also known as the whalehead or whale-headed stork for its. The Shoebill is one of the bird taxa whose taxonomic treatment is murky. Terrestrial flightless birds have reduced wings or none at all (for example. Shoebills feed in muddy waters, preying on fish, frogs, and reptiles, such as baby crocodiles, insects, and small mammals. BirdLife International has classified it as Vulnerable with the main threats being habitat destruction, disturbance, and hunting. ![]() The population is estimated at between 5,000 and 8,000 individuals, the majority of which live in Sudan. The shoebill usually comes in between 40 and 50 inches, although it may be. Shoebill birds lay eggs that are similar to that of a pelican and also share some DNA with pelicans. It lives in tropical east Africa in large swamps from Sudan to Zambia. The shoebill was mislabeled as a stork for a long time, but was eventually relocated to the pelican group and is also considered to be somewhat similar to a heron. The adult is mainly grey while the juveniles are browner. It derives its name from its massive shoe-shaped bill.
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