The dark coloured legs are fairly long, with a tarsus length of 21.7 to 25.5 cm (8.5 to 10.0 in). As in the pelicans, the upper mandible is strongly keeled, ending in a sharp nail. The sharp edges in the mandibles help the shoebill to decapitate their prey and also to discard any vegetation after prey has been caught. The exposed culmen (or the measurement along the top of the upper mandible) is 18.8 to 24 cm (7.4 to 9.4 in), the third longest bill among extant birds after pelicans and large storks, and can outrival the pelicans in bill circumference, especially if the bill is considered as the hard, bony keratin portion. The signature feature of the species is its huge, bulbous bill, which is straw-coloured with erratic greyish markings. A male will weigh on average around 5.6 kg (12 lb) and is larger than a typical female of 4.9 kg (11 lb). Weight has reportedly ranged from 4 to 7 kg (8.8 to 15.4 lb).
Length from tail to beak can range from 100 to 140 cm (39 to 55 in) and wingspan is 230 to 260 cm (7 ft 7 in to 8 ft 6 in). The shoebill is a tall bird, with a typical height range of 110 to 140 cm (43 to 55 in) and some specimens reaching as much as 152 cm (60 in). It lives in tropical east Africa in large swamps from Sudan to Zambia. The adult is mainly grey while the juveniles are browner. However, genetic evidence places it with the Pelecaniformes.
It has a somewhat stork-like overall form and has previously been classified with the storks in the order Ciconiiformes based on this morphology.
It derives its name from its enormous shoe-shaped bill. The shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) also known as whalehead, whale-headed stork, or shoe-billed stork, is a very large stork-like bird. That shoebill looks like it can just crunch the snout off of that Deer
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