The solitary creature of Mabamba swamp
A shoebill watching for mudfish to catch
I have had many wonderful times in nature photographing wildlife. It is an uplifting experience. But some wildlife encounters are a bit more special than others. Having the opportunity to observe the Shoebill was an experience I will not forget in a hurry. There is something magical about this pre-historic looking magnificently large bird. It is a bird like no other, rare and vulnerable, and not easy to find.
An incredible bird with a pre-historic look
The Mabamba swamp on Lake Victoria in Uganda is the home to 300 species of birds, and among them the Shoebill, a bird of the stork family. This vast swamp of over 2400 hectares is based around papyrus, water lilies and other wetland vegetation. It is known for its lungfish (also known as mudfish), a key element of the Shoebill’s diet.
Sunset preening
The Shoebill stork is a large bird. It stands up to 1.5m (5 ft) tall, weighing in at 5-7kg and with a wingspan of 2.3m (7.5 ft). It has a global bird protection status as 'vulnerable' as there are only around 4000 left due to habitat loss, nest disturbance and hunting.
A heavy lift helped by a sizable 2.3m wingspan
This strangely beautiful bird is a solitary animal with a silent and stoical approach to hunting for its favourite catch, the mudfish, from which the Mabamba swamp gets its name (the fish is known locally as Mamba). The Shoebill can stand still for a long time, even hours, watching out for movement in the mud, before rapidly launching forward to grab a mudfish. Its statuesque pose is a beautiful sight against the green wet surroundings.
After what seemed like an eternity standing still, the Shoebill suddenly shot forward and caught a mudfish in between weed and mud
We battled across the choppy waves of Lake Victoria in a wooden canoe on a late afternoon and the following pre-dawn morning to observe this fascinating bird. A local spotter helped us locate the Shoebill. She talks to the local fishermen every day to get a bearing on where to find these solitary birds - which is not always easy as they are far and few between. But the spotter knew her business.
The Shoebill flips its catch and swallows it in one. Dinner served!
At a respectable distance we observed the Shoebill’s patient fishing technique, standing completely still, seemingly not doing much, for many minutes before a sudden forward leap as it shot its beak into the mud and caught a fish. Up in its beak came mud, vegetation and a mudfish. The mud and weed were filtered out and the mudfish swallowed whole. Then, as quickly as this was over, the Shoebill again took up its statuesque poise – standing absolutely still again.
As the Shoebill slowly walked along the swap it seems to have come close to a black-headed lapwing nest
Now and then, after many minutes of still pose, the bird would move a few feet to a new position. At one time it drifted close to a pair of black-headed lapwings, seemingly protecting a nest. The lapwings did their best to scare off the much larger bird, but to little effect.
The lapwings kept diving on the Shoebill which clearly irritated the much larger bird
On a couple of occasions the big bird would lift off and fly a short distance to another hunting spot. Seeing this large bird in flight with its massive wingspan was an impressive sight. Then the light faded, and it was time to navigate out of the labyrinthic swamp channels and head back across Lake Victoria to Entebbe in choppy water in the dark. The good thing was that we were going back the following morning for another attempt at locating this impressive bird. Two trips to the Mabamba swamp that I will never forget.
Further images of the Shoebill can be found in the Birds of East Africa gallery here.
Eventually the Shoebill flew off into the sunset …