These birds might just be the most amazing birds ever. They look like something straight out of Jim Hensen's Creature Shop... hmmm... I wonder if the Shoebill ever inspired anything out of Jim Hensen's Creature Shop...
He has a funky topknot, long gangly legs and that wonderful bill, which looks like it should be too heavy for the bird to hold up its head. But it works. The Shoebill is an African bird, very tall (4.5 ~ 5 feet), and the only species in the family Balaenicipitidae.
Awesome. (I think the word 'awesome' was created for just these situations.)
The Houston Zoo posted a video of their pair on YouTube:
Whee!
Doodled from a photo uploaded to the Wikipedia entry for the Shoebill.
