a shoebill and a human friend greeting each other with headshakes

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   Ben Royce 🇺🇦 (benroyce@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 20-Apr-2025 06:28:49 JST Ben Royce 🇺🇦

   in reply to

   ps:

   the #shoebill is indeed intimidating. they can get up to 5 feet tall (152 cm) with a wingspan of 7.5-8.5 feet (230-260 cm)

   its binomial taxonomy latin name is Balaeniceps rex (king whale head)

   B rex

   however, they are quite friendly with us

   if you mimic their characteristic headshake, even a mother shoebill will let you near her nest

   apparently the shoebill accepts us as weird looking shoebills

   they live in east/ central #africa, and were known to ancient egypt

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoebill