These birds specialize in watching and waiting for lungfish (yes they’re a thing) or frogs to surface for a breath in oxygen-poor water, at which point the birds snatch up their meal in a lightning fast grab with that strong crushing bill. Those territories always include large areas of wetlands where B-rex can hunt. They need to be able to call over long distances because these birds are typically solitary and defend large territories. So if you find yourself in the swamps of east Aftrica and hear something that sounds like gunfire, it might just be a B-rex caling for a mate or warning away a competitor. While shoebills have a syrinx (the bird equivalent of our voice box), they clap the upper and lower parts of their bill together rapidly to make a ‘machine gun’ sound that is very unique and carries quite far. They also use the large hollow bill as a resonator for sound, but their "call” might not be what you expect.
Shoebills keep their eggs cool by scooping their bills full of water and pouring it over the nest. That giant bill is the stork’s main tool for hunting, but it comes in handy for a number of other uses also. The shoebill is known to ornithologists as Balaenicps rex, or B-rex, meaning ‘the whale-headed king’, a reference to the bird’s most prominent feature.
The Shoebill Stork, like all of our modern birds, is descended from a group of dinosaurs called theropods which included the Tyrannosaurus rex. A tall and terrifying bird, many people find the shoebill stork reminiscent of dinosaurs, and for good reason.