Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex)

Wow! What a bird! This picture should go to Dadabase:

http://www.birdforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=462

Not a bad picture from a canoe. Surely one of the world's most extraordinary birds.

Thank you Papa 10 for taking this marvelous picture of this bird, you have done better from a canoe than most people can do on dry land !
I have uploaded it to the database.
Thak you Searobin for pointing this one out.

This looks like something out of Jurassic Park! Thanks for showing us such an amazing picture.

That is an AWESOME bird and a great photo. Thanks for sharing.

Glad to help Marmot

Any info on this bird? Can it fly? What does it eat with such a impressive beak?

From "The Great Book of Birds" by Courage Books:

"The Shoebill is a bird of broad freshwater swamps, densely covered with grasses, reeds, and papyrus, seldom venturing onto dry land and roosting on floating vegatation, empty termite mounds or, occasionally, in trees. Thanks to its long toes, it can move nimbly over submerged and floating plants with slow steps, often sinking up to the tibio-tarsal joint or even deeper. Essentially dirunal and solitary by habit, the bird does not hunt at night except occasionally in the light of fires lit by fishermen. Preferred food consists of fish, particularly bichir, lungfish, and catfish, and it also catches amphibians, snakes, and other swampland reptiles."

"When taking off, the shoebill flaps its wings heavily, takes a jump and launches itself upward on a rising air current which enables it to glide effortlessly."

I hope it's OK to for me to post this selection.

It looks like Uganda is the prime place to look for it:

The Shoebill lives only in extensive papyrus swamps in the interior of central Africa, occurring locally from s. Sudan to n. Zambia. Perhaps it is most common in inaccessible wetlands of e. Tanzania, but few of its remote habitats can be reached without difficulty. The only place it can be found with relative ease is Uganda. The Mbamba swamp on Lake Victoria holds several pairs just a half-hour from the international airport

Thank you all for the comments as searobin rightly points out Mabamba Wetlands are definitely the easiest place to see these birds. The local villages have turned the Shoebills into 'tourist attractions'as a trip in a pirouge (large canoe)is almost essential and a home sign at the 'jetty' reads 'Shoebill Trips'.
The charge for these trips including boatman/men and guides is very reasonable and subscribing to the local economy goes some way to ensuring the conservation of the birds.The 'route' traverses narrow channels with some streches of open water before arriving at Lake Victoria,these channels are used primarily as fishermens access to the lake with villagers also using this mode of transport to visit Entebbe.I would encourage anyone who visits Uganda to undertake one of these trips not only for Shoebill but the vast array of other (mainly water)
birds.To give an example 7 Black Crakes were seen very well in the first 200 yards of 'channel travel'Shoebills were also observed at Murchison were one bird was found roosting in an Acacia tree,although this was near the river (Nile),have a 'shot' of this bird in flight and yes they are awesome,the heavy 'bomber' of the bird world with such 'laboured' wingbeats without the thermals.Must apologised for 'going on' but tend to get carried away with enthusiasm.Once again thank you for the interest.

Sorry about some of the mistakes in the previous comment but it is late.Meant to include that the Shoebills are 'staked out' at dawn by the villagers/fishermen so sightings are almost guaranteed and the birds are used to the constant 'traffic' so generally remain in the same area all day.The home made sign has words to the effect of 'See Shoebill here'which, if taken literally,would probably involve a long wait.