Species profile
About the secretarybird
The secretarybird is a raptor that gave up hunting from the air. It walks up to thirty kilometres a day across open grassland on long stork-like legs, flushing prey and killing it with a stamp delivered fast enough to be measured in milliseconds and with a force several times its own body weight.
It is unmistakable — grey and black, with a crest of quill-like feathers and orange bare facial skin — and it is one of the emblematic birds of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro. It has declined sharply and is now classed as Endangered.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
Hunts entirely on foot through the day, stamping prey before swallowing it. Roosts and nests on the flat crown of an acacia, flying up at dusk.
Social life
Monogamous pairs that walk and hunt together over a large home range, performing high undulating display flights.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
A stamping strike delivered in about 15 milliseconds, and long quill-like crest feathers said to resemble pens behind a clerk’s ear.
