The shoebill's bill measures roughly nineteen to twenty-four centimetres along the top, broad, with sharp edges and a hooked tip. It is a tool for seizing large, slippery prey, chiefly lungfish, but also catfish, water snakes, frogs and occasionally young crocodiles or waterfowl.
The strike is unusual. Rather than a heron's fast neck jab, the shoebill pitches its entire body forward and downward onto the target, a movement that brings the heavy bill down with the bird's mass behind it. The bill closes on prey along with water and plant material, the bird then works its head to expel the debris, and decapitates larger fish with the hooked tip before swallowing. Success rates are low enough that patience is essential, and a hunting bird may hold one position without visible movement for a long stretch.
Its relationships were long argued. Once grouped with storks on appearance, molecular evidence now places the shoebill closer to pelicans and the hamerkop, in the order Pelecaniformes.