Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE STORK-LIKE BIRDS

THE SHOE-BILL (Family Balanicipitidce)

A very remarkable bird, indeed, is the great Shoe-bill, or Whale-head of the Upper White Nile, and well entitled to be ranked as the sole representative of a family.

This bird is about four feet in height, with very long legs, rather short neck and large head, which is provided at the back with a short, bushy crest; but the most marked feature is the immense, broad, flattened bill.

This bill, which is eight inches or more in length, is concave in profile, with a ridge down the center of the upper mandible, which is prolonged at the tip into a nail or hook. The wings are long and broad, with the third and fourth quills longest ; the tail is rather short and composed of twelve feathers. The general color of the plumage is ashy gray above, the mantle, scapulars, and wing-coverts having a slight greenish gloss, and paler gray below, (lie feathers of the fore neck and breast each with a dark stripe along the center.

The feet and legs are leaden black in color, and the iris sometimes pale yellowish or occasionally grayish white. But a single species (Balceniceps rex) is known.

The systematic position of the Shoe-bill has given rise to considerable discussion, though now it is pretty generally agreed that its closest affinity is with the Herons, with which it agrees in having powder-down patches on the rump; bare loral spaces, the right lobe of the liver largest, and the caecum single.

According to Parker, who was the first to describe the skeleton,”the nearest relations of Balceniceps are the South American Boat-bill and the little South African Vmbrette (Scopus umbretta),”though Beddard is of the opinion that it”requires further study before its exact position can be determined."

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