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That's one mean looking bird
If you never believed that dinosaurs once roam the earth, you will after seeing one of these in real life. This is the Shoebill stork and it has to be enough proof that mother nature is not always trying to be cute. The kind of death stare this animal can give in of itself is lethal.
Just look at the giant beak on that thing. It doesn't even look like it belongs on the head, it looks like someone took a shovel, stuck it on his head and called it good like the Bible says about how God saw his handy work during the early days of creation.
To make these prehistoric looking bird more dangerous looking is the sounds they make. Most birds wake up in the morning with a nice pretty song or a sweet whistle and make sounds that could absolutely be called singing. The shoebill stork walks around and smacks its beak against itself so fast it sounds like someone shooting a machine gun. It's usually called bill clattering.
Since the beak itself is hollow, each time it hits, it makes a loud echoing sound and pops. If you didn't see the bird making the sound you'd totally think there's a machine gun fight going on in the swamp.
Apparently, they use that sound to communicate. A way to say hi to their mate or tell another bird to back off, but human beings will definitely listen and stay away from a gun noise.
It's hard to believe that is how you would say hi to your mate. It's more like "Hey, Baby, just so you know, I'm getting ready to start a small war.
They're usually so still too and that's when they look the scariest and it's for a long time. Just standing there waiting for a fish or a prey.
