Balaeniceps rex
Shoebills are usually quiet, but adults greeting at the nest—and even young birds—rapidly clap their enormous bills together. The resulting bill-clatter sounds startlingly mechanical.
Shoebills need large, functioning swamps and floodplains. In Zambia's Bangweulu Wetlands, local fishermen are employed as nest guards while researchers use camera traps to monitor eggs, chicks, and fledglings.
Bangweulu covers roughly 6,000 square kilometres and supports more than 400 bird species, along with fisheries that local communities depend on.
See the fieldwork, meet the researchers, or support bird science.
Visit the Bangweulu programme ↗Links go directly to conservation organizations.Local fishers protected recorded nests in 2024.
Bangweulu's community-based guard programme pays local fishers to safeguard Shoebill nests. Sixteen of 21 recorded nests were guarded in 2024.
That creates a direct incentive for successful nesting while field observations and camera traps build a clearer picture of reproductive success.
Meet the Bangweulu nest guardians ↗