Secretarybird
The secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius) is a large terrestrial bird of prey. It is usually found in African savannas and open grasslands.
| Secretarybird | |
|---|---|
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| In Serengeti National Park | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
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| Family: | Sagittariidae
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| Genus: | Sagittarius
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| Binomial name | |
| Sagittarius serpentarius [2] | |
Unlike most birds of prey, the secretarybird hunts its prey on foot. Adults hunt in pairs and sometimes as family flocks. They stalk through the grass with long strides. Prey includes insects, mammals from mice to hares and mongoose, crabs, lizards, snakes, tortoises, young birds, bird eggs, and sometimes dead animals killed in grass or bushfires.
The bird is famous for hunting snakes. It even hunts venomous cobras and other reptiles. Its claws are weak and blunt, so to make a kill, it stomps on its victim, breaking its back.
It is put in its own family on the basis of molecular sequence analysis.[3]
Size
Standing up, the secretarybird is nearly 4.5 feet (1.3 m) tall.[4]
Secretarybird Media
Plate from John Frederick Miller's Icones animalium et plantarum, published 1779, with the original binomial name
The secretarybird has distinctive black feathers protruding from behind its head.
Check out the beaks of these Secretary Birds...I guess no one wants to get caught in that
Captive secretarybird with two eggs in its nest
Illustration of chick, from Faune de la Sénégambie (1883), by Alphonse Trémeau de Rochebrune
Juvenile with lizard kill at Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia
Secretarybird skeleton; the feet are used for killing prey
Secretarybird depicted as the Emblem of Sudan
Secretarybird in captivity
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References
- ↑ BirdLife International (2013). "Sagittarius serpentarius". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- ↑ birdlife.org [1]
- ↑ Wink, Michael; Seibold I.; Lotfikhah F. & Bednarek W. 1998. Molecular systematics of holarctic raptors (Order Falconiformes) in Chancellor R.D; Meyburg B.-U. & Ferrero J.J. (eds) Holarctic birds of prey: 29–48. Adenex & WWGBP.
- ↑ Brinkley, Edward S. 2003 (2003). Reader's Digest pathfinders: creatures of the air and sea. Singapore: Reader's Digest Children's Books. p. 17. ISBN 0-7944-0353-0.