Usually only one chick survives because it is difficult for the parents to get enough food for both of them. Their extraordinary bill is used to crush bones and some of the vegetation picked along with the fish. An adult shoebill can consume as much as 3kg of fish per day. The shoebill roosts inside papyrus swamps, but feeds in fairly open places with thick, but short vegetation. The species is strictly territorial and requires about 3km square of suitable habitat.
Shoebills reproduce slowly, requiring many years before becoming reproductively active.
They are very shy when breeding and can easily abandon their nests with eggs or young at slightest provocation. This is only an abstract. Link was good on date posted here, but some news sources only allow free access to articles for a week or so, then articles are removed or a charge made for access. Earth Crash has 1,000s of news article abstracts on a wide range of environmental subjects and can easily be searched by entering your search terms here. Subscribe to the Earth Crash Newsletter and receive the latest news article headlines by e-mail.