How big is a shoebill? Height, wingspan and weight compared with people and other birds

How big is a shoebill?

Standing height is 110 to 140 cm, wingspan is 230 to 260 cm, and weight is 4 to 7 kg.

The numbers differ a little from source to source. Here we set the values from bird reference books next to the values that zoos publish officially.

"Ueno" is the animal encyclopedia of Ueno Zoo in Japan, and "Dallas" is the introduction by the Dallas World Aquarium in the US.

Here is the key point. Standing, about as tall as a child; with wings spread, around two and a half meters. It looks slim when it stands, but with its wings spread you can see how big the bird really is.

How does shoebill size compare with people?

Its standing height is about the same as the average height of a child aged 5 to 10 in Japan.

Here it is lined up against the national average heights from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (School Health Statistics Survey, fiscal 2024).

In Japan, that works out to a 5-year-old standing eye to eye with a small shoebill, and a 10-year-old with a large one. If you are reading from another country, try comparing with the height of children where you live.

The wingspan is 230 to 260 cm. An adult's arm span is about the same as their height. Compared with an adult 170 cm tall, the wingspan is about 1.4 to 1.5 times as long.

Standing next to an adult (170 cm tall), a shoebill's head would reach roughly the adult's chest to shoulder height. The figure above lines them up too, so try comparing.

A weight of 4 to 7 kg is about two to three and a half 2-liter bottles. In the same statistics the average weight of a 5-year-old boy is 19.0 kg, so a shoebill is only about 2 to 4 tenths of that. For its height, it is a very light bird.

Is a shoebill big compared with other large birds?

In height it is close to the world's largest heron and the marabou stork. In weight it is about half of a great white pelican.

The figures for the other birds come from the Animal Diversity Web of the University of Michigan. "Total length" is the length from bill tip to tail tip, and it is not the same as standing height, so be careful.

Here is what the table tells us, bird by bird.

• Goliath heron: the largest heron alive today. Its weight is about the same as the shoebill's, but the shoebill's wings are bigger
• Grey heron: a heron you can also see along rivers and ponds in Japan. Even with wings spread, it is more than 55 cm shorter than a shoebill
• Marabou stork: a stork that lives in the same Africa as the shoebill. Its height is close, but it is heavier than a shoebill
• Great white pelican: the heaviest in the table, and its wings are the biggest too. A bird that drives fish together in a flock

Here is the key point. The shoebill is a tall bird with big wings, but a light one.

The shoebill's name includes "stork" (in Japanese, "Hashibirokō", with "kō" from kōnotori, the stork). But it is now thought to be closer to the pelicans. For more, see Shoebill relatives: closer to pelicans than to storks.

According to the Animal Diversity Web of the University of Michigan, where the water is deep, the shoebill stands on sturdy floating plants to hunt.

How big are a shoebill's wings?

With its wings spread, it measures 230 to 260 cm. The Ueno Zoo encyclopedia gives 2.5 m, and the Dallas World Aquarium gives an average of 2.33 m.

The Goliath heron, the world's largest heron, has a wingspan of about 2 m. So the shoebill's wings are bigger than that.

It usually stands with its wings folded, so it is a bird whose size is easy to miss. The moments when you can feel how big it is are when it spreads its wings on a hot day or before it flies. How it flies is covered in Can shoebills fly?.

Do male and female shoebills differ in size?

Yes. Males tend to be bigger and to have longer bills.

In the bird reference book values, the average weight is about 5.6 kg for males and about 4.9 kg for females. The Ueno Zoo encyclopedia also gives about 5.6 kg for males and about 5 kg for females.

Kobe Animal Kingdom published the sizes of two of its birds in 2021.

• Bongo (ボンゴ) (male, estimated age 8 at the time): weight about 6 to 7 kg, standing height about 140 cm
• Marimba (マリンバ) (female, estimated age 5 at the time): weight about 4 to 5 kg, standing height about 130 cm

Of the young pair that came to Kobe Animal Kingdom in 2025, too, the male, Sakara (サカラ), is described as big and the female, Kuraru (クラル), as small. Among Ueno Zoo's four birds, the male Hatuwe (ハトゥーウェ) is said to have "the biggest body and the biggest bill". How to tell them apart is covered in detail in Shoebill male vs female.

How big are shoebills at zoos around the world?

Every officially published weight falls within the range of 4 to 7 kg.

The information on individual birds is official information checked in October 2026. Ages are estimates, as of the time of the announcement. The birds at each Japanese facility are introduced in Where to see shoebills in Japan.

How long does a baby shoebill take to reach adult size?

There is a record of a chick passing 5 kg in weight and 1 m in height at about three months old.

At ZooTampa in the US, a chick hatched for the first time in North America in December 2009. A 2010 report records how that chick grew.

The report does not give the size of the egg this chick hatched from. The first egg the same pair laid (an egg that broke in the nest) was 9.0 cm long and 5.75 cm wide and weighed 102 g. Eggs are covered in Shoebill eggs.

In the wild, a study in Zambia reports that a chick weighs about 5.7 kg around the time it leaves the nest.

According to the Animal Diversity Web of the University of Michigan, a wild chick grows as follows.

• At hatching, it is covered in silvery grey down
• At about 60 days, its feathers are complete
• At about 95 days it leaves the nest, and at around 105 to 112 days it flies well

For growth up to leaving the nest, see Baby shoebills, and for how young birds look, see Juvenile shoebill.

Why do shoebill size numbers differ between sources?

The sex and age of the birds measured, and the way they were measured, differ. Above all, what was measured from where to where makes the numbers change a lot.

Even within the numbers in this article, there are differences like these.

• "Standing height" and "total length" are different lengths. Total length is measured from the bill tip to the tail tip
• Males are bigger than females. Depending on which sex was measured more, the average changes
• Young birds are not fully grown. The ZooTampa chick was 100.8 cm tall on day 89
• Bill length is 18.8 to 24 cm in the reference book and 14 to 28 cm in the Ueno Zoo encyclopedia, a different range

The trick when reading numbers is to check "what was measured". In this article, a value with a range is written as a range.

How big are a shoebill's bill and feet?

The bill is about 20 cm long, and the middle toe is about 17 cm.

The bill length is 18.8 to 24 cm in the bird reference book values. The Dallas World Aquarium gives the width as 10 to 13 cm. For more, see What is special about the shoebill's beak?.

The tarsus (the part that looks like a shin) is 21.7 to 25.5 cm. The middle toe is 16.8 to 18.5 cm, about the size of an adult's palm. The secret of those long toes is in Shoebill feet and toes.

Where can you meet a big shoebill?

In Japan you can see them at 8 facilities with 15 birds (as of October 2026), and in the world at about 20 zoos. Wild shoebills live only in Africa.

The 8 facilities in Japan that have shoebills are these.

• Ueno Zoo (恩賜上野動物園), Tokyo
• Nasu Animal Kingdom (那須どうぶつ王国), Tochigi
• Chiba Zoological Park (千葉市動物公園), Chiba
• Kakegawa Kachoen (掛川花鳥園), Shizuoka
• Meccha Omoroi Zoo (めっちゃおもろい動物園), Koka, Shiga
• Kobe Animal Kingdom (神戸どうぶつ王国), Hyogo
• Matsue Vogel Park (松江フォーゲルパーク), Shimane
• Kochi Prefectural Noichi Zoological Park (高知県立のいち動物公園), Kochi

The first time a chick hatched in a zoo anywhere in the world was in 2008, at Pairi Daiza in Belgium. Besides body size, records of breeding like this are also adding up little by little.

Of the 15 birds in Japan, two at Ueno Zoo are scheduled to move to an off-exhibit facility for breeding (the October 26 date was postponed and no new date is set, as of October 23, 2026). Chiba Zoological Park has paused its exhibit until around spring 2028. Check the official information before you go.

Places to meet them in Japan are in Where to see shoebills in Japan, places in the world are in Where to see shoebills around the world, and wild birds are in See wild shoebills in Africa.

Sources

• English Wikipedia: Shoebill (quoting the values of Hancock et al. 1992: height, total length, wingspan, weight, bill)
• Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan): Balaeniceps rex
• Animal Diversity Web: Ardea goliath (Goliath heron)
• Animal Diversity Web: Ardea cinerea (grey heron)
• Animal Diversity Web: Leptoptilos crumeniferus (marabou stork)
• Animal Diversity Web: Pelecanus onocrotalus (great white pelican)
• Ueno Zoo (恩賜上野動物園): Animal encyclopedia, shoebill (in Japanese)
• Ueno Zoo (恩賜上野動物園): Shoebills, how to tell the four birds apart (in Japanese)
• Ueno Zoo (恩賜上野動物園): Move of two shoebills to an off-exhibit facility (2026, in Japanese)
• Dallas World Aquarium: Shoebill stork
• Kobe Animal Kingdom (神戸どうぶつ王国): press release (April 2021, in Japanese)
• Kobe Animal Kingdom (神戸どうぶつ王国): press release (June 2025, in Japanese)
• Kochi Prefectural Noichi Zoological Park (高知県立のいち動物公園): Shoebill (in Japanese)
• Sacheon Aramar Aquarium: introduction to Bill (in Korean)
• Pairi Daiza: introduction to the shoebill
• Prague Zoo: introduction to the shoebill (March 2025, in Czech)
• Chiba Zoological Park (千葉市動物公園): pause of the shoebill exhibit (in Japanese)
• Killmar: report on the first hatching in North America at ZooTampa (AFA Watchbird 37(3), 2010) PDF
• Mullers & Amar: study of parental behavior at the nest and chick growth (Waterbirds 38, 2015)
• Hancock, J. A., Kushlan, J. A. & Kahl, M. P. 1992. Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World. Academic Press (foot and toe lengths)
• Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology: School Health Statistics Survey (fiscal 2024, in Japanese)
• Osaka City Board of Education: School Health Statistics, fiscal 2024 (comparison table with national average heights, in Japanese) PDF