The African openbill is an 80?94 cm long stork with a weight of 1?1.3 kg. Its adult plumage is generally dark overall, with glossy green, brown, and purple on the mantle and breast. The bill is brownish and notably large. The legs are black, and the eye is grey. The juvenile plumage is more dull and brown, with areas of pale feather tips. The African openbill is found in throughout sub-Saharan Africa. It is a bird of shallow wetlands and can be found wherever its molluscan prey is available including emporarily flooded pans, flood plains, swamps, marshes, ponds, streams, river shallows, dams, rice paddies, lagoons, lake margins and intertidal mud flats. The African openbill feeds almostly exclusively on aquatic snails and freshwater mussels. It will, however also eat terrestrial snail, frogs, crabs, fish, worms, and large insects. It uses its bill to detects its prey, and can use it in such a way that it easily pries open molluscs. It tends to feed singly or in small groups.