Bird

The Shoebill

Le bec-en-sabot, oiseau étrange et fascinant des zones humides africaines, contribue à la préservation des écosystèmes aquatiques en filtrant l’eau, soulignant l’importance de la conservation pour ces espèces inhabituelles.

A remarkable beak : in the shape of a 25cm-long and 10cm-wide shoe

a large, pearl-grey wader bird

this bird is so rare and shy that European scientists only discovered him in 1850 during expeditions in the vast marshlands of Africa, at the source of the Nile.

Living in wetlands, he feeds on fish, but also on snakes, frogs, young monitors or crocodiles that he swallows whole while dredging the mud with his curious beak.

It is an animal rarely seen in captivity: Pairi Daiza was the first park in the world to hatch two large gray chicks in 2008: Abou and Marqoub.

The Nile shoebill is only visible at Pairi Daiza when the weather is good enough, from mid-May to September.