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The shoebill (Balaeniceps rex), also known as the whale-headed stork, and shoe-billed stork, is a large long-legged wading bird. It derives its name from its enormous shoe-shaped bill . It has a somewhat stork -like overall form and has previously been classified with the storks in the order Ciconiiformes based on this morphology.
The shoebill is the sole extant species and its closest relative is the hamerkop (Scopus umbretta), which belongs to another family. Species from the Ciconiiformes and Balaenicipitidae family have been found in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and parts of East Africa. It has the following genera: Balaeniceps [1] [2]
Recent studies have found that its closest relatives are the pelicans and shoebill. [12] [13] Although the hamerkop is the only living member of its family, one extinct species is known from the fossil record. Scopus xenopus was described by ornithologist Storrs Olson in 1984 based on two bones found in Pliocene deposits from South Africa.
Shoebill storks look like something out of a dark fantasy novel. With their towering height, piercing eyes, and enormous bills, you might even wonder if these birds have escaped from Jurassic Park.
Storks are large, heavy, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long stout bills and wide wingspans. They lack the powder down that other wading birds such as herons, spoonbills, and ibises use to clean off fish slime. Storks lack a pharynx and are mute. One species has been recorded in Ohio. Wood stork, Mycteria americana (R)
Reviewing genetic evidence to date, Cracraft and colleagues surmised that pelicans were sister to the shoebill with the hamerkop as the next earlier offshoot. [7] Ericson and colleagues sampled five nuclear genes in a 2006 study spanning the breadth of bird lineages, and came up with pelicans, shoebill and hamerkop in a clade. [8]
The Javan rhino is the most endangered of the five species. It is also one of the rarest large mammals in the world . Javan rhinos live in dense jungles and tend to be shy of humans.
The now extinct Haast's eagle (Hieraaetus moorei), which existed alongside early aboriginal people in New Zealand, was by far the largest eagle known and perhaps the largest raptor ever. Adult female Haast's are estimated to have averaged up to 1.4 m (4.6 ft) in length, weighing up to 15 kg (33 lb), with a relatively short 3 m (9.8 ft) wingspan.