Shoe stork Balaeniceps rex

In Africa, there is a very unique bird called the shoe stork, the scientific name is Balaeniceps rex. This bird is found only in Africa. Looking at the surface, it was awkward: a medium-deep, wide, 20cm-long mine looked like a wooden shoe . Slightly yellow with dark spots, the end of the beak looks like a hook.

The shoe stork is very good at using "wooden shoes" to find bait. They spend most of their time searching through the water, this wooden shoe grabs everything from fish, frogs, water snakes, small crocodiles, mollusks, to dead bodies in mud.

(Photo: dinets.trave)

Although catching prey under muddy water, this kind of stork mainly relies on sight and hearing to determine where there are prey. Their main prey is "standing and waiting" or "wading and walking slowly". Because of the beak and the bulky head, they must regain their balance, return to their upright position before making another bite. When they catch the bait, their mouths also grab the neck of the tree under the water. To get rid of the grass, they know how to turn the head back and forth, throw the grass and the garbage out while still holding on to the prey.

Their functions have sharp edges, which are useful for both capturing prey and feeding. Before being swallowed, the prey is often cut off by this sharp jaw.

This bird is quite easy to identify : it is a high water bird, about 1.2m long; standing tall about 1.2m. Because of their large head and very large skull compared to their bodies, they are also called "whale head" by locals. The coat is brownish black, with a soft plume on the head, wide wings, long legs and a slightly black color. Big eyes, yellowish or white-gray. Males are bigger than females, mines are longer. The "member" is darker than the adult.

The stork of flying shoes is good, they fly fast, sometimes even glide, or soar thanks to the rising wind from the ground. When on the ground or when flying, they often retract their necks and place a heavy beak on their chests like a heron or a pelican.

The shoe stork only lives alone on the river banks and freshwater marshes, some people have seen them gather in swarms to 7. When food is scarce, they find food closer together. Usually each pair of mound shoes goes to separate food on the two edges of their "territory" but rarely go out to feed together .

But like to live alone like that, but the famous shoe stork is faithful, lifelong only 1 husband and wife. Both her father and mother's father participated in building nests, hatching eggs, raising children. In the breeding season, they become aggressive and ready to fight to protect the nest, against any evil beast or competitor. The breeding season is usually in the dry season. It is very strange that they are still quite docile and comfortable when people come close to their nest. Each spawning season, the stork laying on the nest about 2-3 eggs, incubation time about 30 days. To cope with the hot weather in Africa, parents know "air conditioning" for eggs to keep eggs from getting too hot, they suck a whole mouth and irrigate the neck. They also know how to take wet grass around the egg and turn the eggs back and forth with feet and mines.

(Photo: image24.webshots)

The newly hatched baby has a silky, silvery-gray coat. The mother's stork continues to water and cover her baby until her baby's hair fully develops. After hatching, parents raise their babies with chewable food at least 1-3 times a day, and then 5-6 times a day when the baby is a little older.These young birds are terrible gluttons, if their parents do not keep them up when they are hungry they will eat each other .

The shoe stork is slower than other birds. They are full of full wing feathers at 95 days old. However, the offspring cannot fly until they are 105-112 days old. Parents have to raise their babies for another month, after which they will be fully independent. Usually, each child has only one baby to grow up, because he is eaten by animals or because he eats each other.

The nest is made of leafy plants growing in the water. The bottom of the nest is only slightly higher than the water surface, the nest is on a mound between the four surfaces of water or on a group of plants floating on the water.

Although the Balaeniceps rex has many similarities, it has just named them "shoe beaks," but the anatomical evidence suggests they have a close relationship with pelicans.