The Shoebill, king of the marshes

With my art, I’m aiming to bring awareness of the world's natural beauty threatened with extinction. My message is, we all need to be aware that we’re surrounded by amazing living creatures which unfortunately live in a broken environment, an environment shattered by humans.

About this painting

This is The Shoebill. Also known as the Whale-Headed Stork, or Shoebill Stork. It lives in the freshwater swamps of central tropical Africa and is on the List of Threatened Species.

The shoebill is known for its slow movements and tendency to stay still for long periods, and from this feature is also called the "statue-like" bird. In-flight is one of the slowest of any bird, with the exception of the larger stork species.

But when the prey is spotted, Shoebill launches a quick violent strike. What's interesting is that more recently, the Shoebill has been considered to be closer to the pelicans that the storks. So there’s a discussion among the scientists if shoebill is either a stork? Or a pelican?