Unfortunately, the younger chick only seems to be preferred by the mother if the older one doesn't survive. The younger chick was forced out into the heat, and died slowly.”įor this reason, the mothers often end up raising only one chick. When the parent arrived it favoured the larger chick, shading it from the sun with its wings and giving it water from its bill. So, despite its tall stature, this bird remains hidden well. During this time, the bird remains silent, and its dark feathers often blend into the nearby shadows. “It would drive its sibling over to the side of the nest. They’ll sit in the water for hours on end, sometimes submerged up to their waists, as they wait for innocent prey to swim by. It has a somewhat stork-like overall form and has previously been classified with the storks in the order Ciconiiformes based on this morphology. It derives its name from its enormous shoe-shaped bill. Instead of welcoming the second chick, it's common for the first-born to start a violent rivalry. “On several occasions the older chick attacked its younger sibling, drawing blood,” said BBC producer Alex Lanchester. The shoebill ( Balaeniceps rex) also known as the whalebill, whale-headed stork or shoe-billed stork, is a very large long-legged wading bird. So, the first-born chicks are much bigger than the younger siblings. They found that many of the nests had two chicks, which were often born about five days apart from each other. Yet, one group of scientists were lucky enough to observe these young birds, and it wasn't as heartwarming as they imagined. Shoebill birds are shy creatures, so it's rare to see the behaviors of chicks in the nest.
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