What sound does a shoebill make? What bill clattering is and means

What does a shoebill sound like?

The most famous shoebill sound is bill clattering (rapidly snapping the bill together). It is not a call made with the throat. It is a sound made with the bill.

Most birds sing or call with the syrinx (a bird's voice organ, deep in the throat). Shoebills hardly use that voice.

The Animal Diversity Web of the University of Michigan describes the shoebill as a generally quiet bird. Instead, it often shows the behavior of clattering its bill.

Written out, it sounds like "clack-clack-clack..." or "kakakaka...". Mandai Bird Paradise in Singapore describes the sound as a loud, hollow-sounding rattle.

For other names for the shoebill's sounds, the description from ZooTampa in the United States is easy to follow. The adult's cow-like call is written as mooing, and the chick's call is written as hiccupping.

How does a shoebill make the clattering sound?

It strikes the upper and lower halves of its bill together quickly, again and again. The bill is big and hard, 18.8 to 24 cm long, so the sound carries well.

Kobe Animal Kingdom (神戸どうぶつ王国) also describes this behavior, striking the bill together to make a sound, as clattering.

A shoebill's bill is a sturdy shape, both wide and deep. The striking surfaces are large, so the force of the sound is nothing like the bill sound of a small bird. The structure of the bill is covered in Shoebill bill.

Clattering is often seen together with a bow, in which the bird lowers its neck. The meaning of the bow is summed up in Shoebill bowing.

In the sources we checked, we could not find any study that measured how loud the sound is (in decibels) or how many times the bill strikes in one burst.

What other sounds and calls do shoebills make?

Besides clattering, a few calls made from the throat are known. All of them are rarely heard.

Here is the key point. The star of the shoebill's "voice" is not a voice but the sound of the bill. Hearing a call from the throat is a real stroke of luck.

Why do shoebills sound like gunshots or machine guns?

It is because the fast, loud, repeated striking in clattering sounds like rapid gunfire.

The hard bill halves hit each other many times at short intervals. That "ta-ta-ta-ta" rhythm is compared to the sound of a machine gun. When people on the internet say it sounds like a shootout or is scary, this is the sound they mean.

But clattering is not a signal of attack. Most of the time it is a greeting. Compared with how intense it looks and sounds, the behavior itself is very gentle.

What does bill clattering mean?

Most clattering is a greeting between a pair, or between a parent and its chick, when they meet at the nest. It is also seen during courtship.

According to the Animal Diversity Web, adult shoebills greet each other with clattering when they meet at the nest. Chicks and juveniles clatter their bills too.

ZooTampa in the United States also describes clattering as a greeting between a pair. In the explanatory sheet from Kochi Prefectural Noichi Zoological Park (高知県立のいち動物公園), clattering together with lowering the head is described as showing affection. In the breeding season, a male and female are said to bow to each other.

In zoos, birds are also known to clatter at keepers they like. Some birds, such as Futaba (ふたば) of Kakegawa Kachoen (掛川花鳥園), show it together with a bow.

Why don't shoebills usually call?

In the sources we checked, we could not find any study on why shoebills are usually silent. What is known is that they live a quiet life, mostly alone, waiting for fish.

Look at the AEWA conservation plan (the international agreement to protect waterbirds of Africa and Eurasia). Apart from the time they are raising young, shoebills are said to live mostly alone. The Animal Diversity Web says that the senses a shoebill relies on for hunting are mainly sight and hearing.

Their prey, the lungfish, comes up to the surface to breathe. According to FishBase, a database on fish, the kind of lungfish shoebills often eat is a fish that cannot survive without gulping air. The shoebill waits perfectly still for that one moment of breathing. Hunting is covered in How a shoebill hunts.

What about the shoebill's "moo" and the chicks' calls?

Adults sometimes make a low, cow-like call or a high call. Chicks make a call like a human hiccup when begging for food.

The source on calls is the bird reference book *Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World* (Hancock et al., 1992). It lists three calls: a cow-like call, a hoarse call and a high call.

On the chick's call, the same book says it is eerily similar to a human hiccup. When a parent brings food, the chick begs with this call.

In a study in Zambia, a parent brought food to the nest 1.2 times a day on average (Mullers & Amar, 2015). The results came from cameras placed at nests, and food was brought most often early in the morning and late in the morning.

For roughly the first 40 days after hatching, the parents hardly left the nest. They left only to fetch water to cool the chick and material for the nest. You can read more about chicks in Baby shoebill.

Do shoebills and storks sound alike?

Clattering, the striking of the bill, is very similar to what storks do. But the shoebill is not a member of the stork family.

For the Oriental stork (konotori, コウノトリ) in Japan, a document from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism explains it as follows. They call as chicks, but stop calling a while after leaving the nest. Instead, they clatter their bills with the head bent back until it nearly touches the back.

The white stork of Europe also clatters its bill, in a display (a set pattern of movements shown to others) in which it moves its neck up and down.

There is a difference in posture. A stork clatters while bending its head back toward its back. A shoebill often clatters together with a bow, lowering its neck. The sound is the same, but the movements look almost opposite.

According to the Animal Diversity Web, the shoebill's syrinx is similar to a heron's. On the other hand, its clattering and the tiny bones of its ear (ear ossicles) are similar to a stork's. Its classification was hard to settle because these features are mixed together.

How do zoos around the world describe the shoebill's sound?

Zoos around the world also describe the shoebill as a generally quiet bird that clatters its bill as a greeting. Their descriptions are very similar from zoo to zoo.

The Dallas World Aquarium uses the word "practice" for the clattering of young birds. The Animal Diversity Web also says that chicks and juveniles clatter their bills. The early years are covered in Juvenile shoebill.

Both of the facilities in the United States are places you can visit. They are introduced in Shoebills at ZooTampa and Dallas World Aquarium.

Can you hear a shoebill at a zoo?

Sometimes you can. The chances are best when a keeper comes close, or when two birds face each other.

As of October 2026, the zoos in Japan with two or more shoebills are as follows.

At Ueno Zoo, after the two birds move, the birds left in the exhibit will be two females, Asante and Sana. The move was planned for October 26 but has been postponed, and all four are on display for now (as of October 23, 2026). Even with two females, watch how they act when they face each other.

According to the introduction from Noichi Zoological Park, the female Kashishi greets every staff member who comes into the room. The male Sasa is also written to show greeting behavior.

Even at a facility with a single bird, you may be able to hear the sound when it greets a keeper. You cannot always hear it, so check the official information before you go, and wait with the attitude that it is lucky if you do. The places where you can meet shoebills are summed up in Japan's zoos.

If you would like to hear the sound in a video, Shoebill videos may also help.

Sources

• Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan): Balaeniceps rex
• Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan): Ciconia ciconia (white stork)
• Descriptions from Hancock, Kushlan & Kahl (1992), Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World (checked through citations on English Wikipedia)
• Mandai Bird Paradise (Singapore): Shoebill
• ZooTampa: Shoebill Stork
• Dallas World Aquarium: Shoebill Stork
• Kochi Prefectural Noichi Zoological Park (高知県立のいち動物公園): Explanatory sheet on the shoebill (in Japanese)
• Kochi Prefectural Noichi Zoological Park (高知県立のいち動物公園): Shoebill (in Japanese)
• Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Kanto Regional Development Bureau: What kind of bird is the Oriental stork? (in Japanese)
• Dodman (2013): International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Shoebill (AEWA Technical Series No.51)
• Mullers & Amar (2015): Parental nesting behavior and chick growth (Waterbirds)
• FishBase: Protopterus aethiopicus (marbled lungfish)
• Kobe Animal Kingdom (神戸どうぶつ王国): Introducing the new shoebills (in Japanese)
• Ueno Zoo (恩賜上野動物園): On moving the shoebills to an off-exhibit facility (2026, in Japanese)
• Chiba Zoological Park (千葉市動物公園): On the suspension of the shoebill exhibit (2026, in Japanese)
• Kobe Animal Kingdom (神戸どうぶつ王国): New shoebills have arrived (June 2025, Kyodo News PR Wire, in Japanese)