Africa's secretarybird is an eagle on crane legs that stamps snakes
The secretarybird Sagittarius serpentarius is a large, mostly terrestrial African raptor of open grasslands. An eagle-like body on crane-like legs can lift it to about 1.3 metres; the sexes look alike, crowned with quill-like feathers.
Its names carry history. Dutch naturalist Arnout Vosmaer described the bird in 1769 from a live specimen shipped from the Cape of Good Hope, suggesting settlers called it sagittarius because its walk recalled an archer's. John Frederick Miller coined Falco serpentarius in 1779, and Johann Hermann gave it a genus of its own, Sagittarius, in 1783. Buffon later proposed that secretary referred to the long neck quills, like pens tucked behind a scribe's ear.
The measurements are striking: 1.1 to 1.5 metres long, a wingspan of 1.9 to 2.1 metres, and an average weight of about 4 kilograms. Adults have a bare red-orange face and mostly grey plumage with black flight feathers and thighs, and in flight two long central tail feathers trail past the feet. The toes are only about a fifth as long as those of a similar-sized eagle and too stout to grip, so it hunts on foot, stamping insects and small vertebrates to death.
Breeding can occur any month but often late in the dry season. Nests top thorny trees with one to three eggs; good food years may raise more young. Despite a wide range, local surveys show rapid decline, likely from habitat destruction, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as endangered. South Africa and Sudan both put it on their national emblems.
A 2008 molecular study placed it as sister to the group holding ospreys and the kites, hawks and eagles. It ranges from Senegal to Somalia and south to the Western Cape, favouring grass under half a metre tall.
Source: Secretarybird
