Pelicans, herons and ibises | Pelecaniformes

Families in this order

• Hamerkop | Scopidae1 speciesA single medium-sized species, uniformly dull brown with a purple gloss on the back and a faintly barred tail, whose outline is set by the heavy, laterally flattened bill with its slightly hooked tip and the broad crest at the back of the head directly opposite it — together the hammer head from which the bird takes its name. Molecular work places this monotypic family with the pelicans, herons and Shoebill in the Pelecaniformes, no longer with the storks, where appearance long kept it. It forages alone or in twos in the shallows of rivers, vleis, stock ponds and estuaries, searching as it walks with short shuffling paces, stirring the bottom with one foot and at times spreading the wings as a shade canopy; the food consists mainly of frogs and small fish. The nest is out of all proportion to the bird: a domed structure of thousands of sticks, reeds and mud, up to a metre and a half across, in a tree fork or on a rock ledge, with a narrow entrance underneath and an inner chamber holding the three to seven eggs. A pair builds several a year; abandoned nests are taken over by owls, geese, genets and snakes.
• Herons and bitterns | Ardeidae19 speciesThe middle of the neck is built of shortened vertebrae, so the neck folds into a Z and can shoot forward in one movement, with the straight, pointed bill working as a spear or a pair of forceps. They hunt standing or walking slowly in shallow water for fish, amphibians, insects and small mammals, and they are the only long-legged waders that fly with the neck drawn back between the shoulders and the legs trailing past the tail. Patches of powder down on the breast and flanks crumble continuously; using the comb-like serrated claw of the middle toe they work that powder through the plumage to bind slime and fish oil. The nest is a platform of sticks or reeds, usually in a colony, and three to six eggs are laid with incubation starting from the first, so the chicks hatch a day or two apart and differ sharply in size.
• Pelicans | Pelecanidae2 speciesAll four toes are joined by webbing — heavy birds on short legs that swim exceptionally well. Slung under the lower mandible is an elastic pouch, not a larder but a dip net: the head goes under, the water drains away along the edges of the bill and the fish is swallowed at once, and in shallows groups drive fish together to do it. Air sacs beneath the skin keep the body riding high, and on very long broad wings they soar up on thermals and travel in formation. They breed packed close together in colonies, lay two or three chalky white eggs that are incubated on top of the webbed feet, and the young hatch naked.
• Ibises and spoonbills | Threskiornithidae6 speciesThese birds feel their food rather than see it. The bill is long and packed with touch receptors: in the ibises it is decurved for probing mud, shallow water and grass tussocks, while in the spoonbills it widens at the tip into a spatula that is swept sideways through the water and snaps shut the moment something touches it. That lets them feed in turbid water and after dark. The face is partly or wholly bare, they fly with the neck outstretched in lines or slanting formations, alternating flapping with gliding, and they nest colonially in trees or reeds, laying two to five eggs whose naked young take food from the parent's throat.
• Shoebill | Balaenicipitidae1 speciesA monotypic family comprising only the Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex). It inhabits extensive papyrus and reed swamps from South Sudan to Zambia, where the Bangweulu Swamps are its southernmost stronghold. Standing up to 1.5 m tall with a wingspan well over two metres, it is dominated by a colossal, bulbous, clog-shaped bill. The bill ends in a sharp nail-like hook and has keen cutting edges, used to seize, decapitate and strip vegetation from prey. The Shoebill is a solitary ambush predator. It stands statue-still at the edge of open water or on floating vegetation, sometimes for hours. It then 'collapses' forward with wings raised and engulfs prey and plants together. Its main prey are lungfish, catfish and tilapia. Water snakes, frogs, young crocodiles and monitor lizards are also taken. It flies with the neck retracted, as pelicans do, and often soars on thermals. It is mostly silent, but bill-clattering serves as a greeting at the nest. The nest is a mound of floating vegetation holding one to three eggs. Usually only one chick fledges, since the eldest commonly kills or outcompetes its siblings, so reproduction is slow. Its classification has long been disputed among storks, herons and pelicans. It is now placed with the pelicans, with the Hamerkop as its closest relative.