Animal
Secretarybird
The secretarybird is a tall gray bird with very long legs and a crest of black feathers. It walks through the grass and stamps on its food.
The secretarybird is a bird of prey that hunts on foot. It strides across the African savanna on the longest legs of any raptor, walking 20 to 30 kilometers a day, and stamps on grasshoppers, mice, lizards and even snakes with lightning-fast kicks.
Sagittarius serpentarius, the only member of the family Sagittariidae, is a terrestrial raptor of sub-Saharan grassland and savanna. It kills prey with rapid, forceful foot strikes, and the IUCN's 2020 assessment lists it as Endangered, with an estimated 6,700 to 67,000 mature birds and a decreasing trend.
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the secretarybird
The secretarybird is a bird of prey that likes to walk.
It is gray, with black feathers on its wings and legs. It has very long legs, a hooked beak and an orange face. Black feathers stick up on its head like a crown.
The secretarybird is a bird of prey, but it looks a little like a crane on stilts. It stands about 0.9 to 1.2 meters tall, with a gray body, black flight feathers, black feathered thighs, a bare orange face and a crest of long black feathers.
Its legs are the longest of any bird of prey. It can fly well and even soars high on warm air, but it spends most of its day walking, hunting on the ground.
Sagittarius serpentarius combines an eagle-like head and hooked bill with crane-like legs. Adults stand about 0.9 to 1.2 meters tall and weigh 2.3 to 4.27 kilograms, and males are slightly larger than females. The Peregrine Fund calls it the tallest raptor in the world, with the longest legs of any bird of prey.
It is the only living member of its family, Sagittariidae. The plumage is blue-gray above and paler below, with black flight feathers, thighs and rump, a crest of long black nape feathers and a wedge-shaped tail with two long central feathers. In adults the bare facial skin is red-orange; in juveniles it is yellow, and their crests and tails are shorter.
Quick facts
- Group
- Bird
- Height
- 0.9 to 1.2 m
- Weight
- 2.3 to 4.27 kg
Where it lives
Secretarybirds live in Africa.
They walk across grassy plains with a few trees. Short grass helps them see their food.
Secretarybirds live only in Africa south of the Sahara, from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east and all the way to South Africa.
They like savannas with short grass and scattered thorny trees, where they can see well while they walk. They also hunt in grassland, scrub, farmland and even airfields, but they avoid mountains and very dry deserts. They do not migrate, though they may wander from place to place.
The species is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, ranging from Senegal to Somalia and south to the Cape; in South Africa it occurs in all nine provinces. The IUCN's 2020 global assessment lists it as resident in 35 countries and describes its movements as nomadic.
It favors savanna with short grass and scattered flat-topped thorn trees (Vachellia and Senegalia), which give clear views while foraging and sites for nests and roosts. It also uses grassland, semi-desert scrub, pasture and other farmland, and open patches in woodland, while generally avoiding mountainous and extremely arid country. Pairs may hold territories of up to about 50 square kilometers.
Continent
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Savannas and grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal to Somalia and south to South Africa. Birds live in only part of many countries shown and wander in search of food. The IUCN also lists seven more countries in West and East Africa that are not shaded, because no wild records from them have been shared with GBIF.
Places: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Central African Rep., Chad, DR Congo, Eritrea and 20 more places.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Zambia and 25 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Secretarybirds eat lots of different small animals.
They eat grasshoppers, beetles, mice and lizards. Sometimes they catch snakes. They stamp on their food with their long legs.
Many people think secretarybirds eat mostly snakes, but South Africa's national biodiversity institute says most of their food is insects and other small creatures: grasshoppers, beetles, scorpions and spiders. They also catch mice, rats, hares, lizards, small birds, frogs and eggs.
They do catch snakes, including venomous ones such as puff adders and cobras. When a secretarybird finds prey, it chases it, then stamps on it or knocks it down with fast kicks. It swallows most food whole.
South Africa's biodiversity institute (SANBI) describes the secretarybird as an opportunistic predator whose diet is mostly arthropods, such as grasshoppers, beetles, wasps, spiders and scorpions, along with small mammals, reptiles, small birds, amphibians, eggs and freshwater crabs. Snakes, including venomous species, are taken, but contrary to popular belief they are not the main food.
It forages on foot, alone or in pairs, chasing prey with wings spread and killing it by stamping or with a quick kick; it may stamp beside shrubs to flush hidden animals. Unusually for a raptor, it often picks prey up with its bill and swallows most items whole. It is not immune to snake venom, so it approaches snakes cautiously and makes sure they are dead before eating them.
Did you know?
Its name means "archer of snakes."
Its scientific name, Sagittarius serpentarius, means "the archer of snakes."
The Dutch naturalist Arnout Vosmaer suggested the name Sagittarius in 1769 because he thought the bird's gait looked like an archer's; serpentarius refers to snakes.
Built for walking and kicking
The secretarybird's legs are very, very long.
Thick scales cover the lower legs, like tough boots. Its kick is super fast, much faster than you can blink!
Those long legs make the secretarybird a champion walker: it covers about 20 to 30 kilometers a day. Its lower legs are covered in thick scales. Its feet are made for walking, not for grabbing, so it carries food in its beak.
Scientists measured the kicks of a trained secretarybird named Madeleine striking a rubber snake. His kicks hit with a force of about five times his body weight, and on average his foot touched the target for only 15 thousandths of a second.
The very long legs are feathered down to the tarsus, below which heavy scales cover the lower leg; Britannica says these protect against snakebite. The feet are built for walking and have little grasping power, so prey is carried in the bill rather than the talons. The bird must crouch to feed or drink.
In a 2016 Current Biology study, researchers from Royal Holloway, the Royal Veterinary College and the Hawk Conservancy Trust trained a captive male, Madeleine, to strike a rubber snake pulled across a hidden force plate. Kicks peaked at about 195 newtons, roughly five times body weight, with an average foot contact of just 15 milliseconds. Steve Portugal noted that this is about a tenth of the time of an eye blink, too fast for the bird to adjust a kick once it has begun, so it relies on visual targeting and pre-planned movement.
Growing up
Secretarybird parents build a big, flat nest on top of a tree.
The mother lays one to three eggs. Both parents feed the chicks. The young birds leave the nest when they are about three months old.
A secretarybird pair builds a huge, flat nest of sticks on top of a flat-topped tree such as an acacia. It can reach up to 2.4 meters across, and pairs often use the same nest for many years.
The female lays one to three eggs, two or three days apart, and does most of the sitting while the male brings food. After about six weeks the chicks hatch. Both parents feed them, at first with soft food brought back up from their crops. The young leave the nest at about 9 to 15 weeks.
Breeding can happen throughout the year; SANBI notes peaks from August to March. Both sexes build a platform nest of sticks on a flat-topped tree, up to about 2.4 meters across and lined with grass, and add to it year after year.
Clutches are one to three eggs laid two to three days apart; incubation starts with the first egg, is shared but done mostly by the female, and lasts about 42 to 46 days, so the chicks hatch a few days apart. Unlike most raptors, the parents regurgitate food from the crop for the nestlings. Chicks are fully feathered at about six weeks and fledge at 9 to 15 weeks, often with a flapping, partly controlled drop to the ground, then forage with their parents before becoming independent. Eggs and nestlings can be taken by crows, ravens, ground hornbills and eagle-owls; adults are rarely preyed upon.
A day on foot
Secretarybirds sleep high in trees at night.
In the morning they come down and walk all day, looking for food. Pairs do a dance with their wings open.
A secretarybird's day starts at a roost high in a tree. In the morning it drops to the ground and spends the day walking and hunting, resting in the shade when it is hottest, then returns to its roost just before sunset.
Secretarybirds usually live in pairs or small family groups, and a pair is thought to stay together for life. To court, they soar and swoop through the sky, and on the ground they dance together with their wings open. They are mostly quiet, but can make a deep croak.
Secretarybirds are diurnal. They leave their roost, often the nest tree or another flat-topped tree, early in the day, forage on foot through the daylight hours and return in the late afternoon. They are found alone, in pairs or in family groups of up to five, and larger gatherings may form briefly at water holes or rich food sources.
Pairs are believed to be monogamous for life. Courtship includes aerial displays, in which the male soars high and dives toward the female, and crane-like ground dances with wings spread. The birds are generally silent, but use a far-carrying deep croak and a growl in courtship and territorial defense, and soft calls at the nest.
Did you know?
Secretarybird parents feed their chicks soft, mushy food.
Most birds of prey tear up food for their chicks, but secretarybirds bring food back up from their crops to feed them.
Unlike most raptors, secretarybirds regurgitate food stored in the crop for their nestlings, and they often raise more than one chick successfully.
Helping secretarybirds
There are fewer secretarybirds than there used to be.
They are losing the grassy places where they hunt. Many African countries have laws to protect them.
The secretarybird is endangered. Its numbers are falling across much of Africa, and it has disappeared from some places. The main problem is habitat loss: grasslands are being turned into farms and towns, and land grazed too hard by livestock leaves little cover for the small animals it eats.
Secretarybirds are protected by law in many African countries, and protecting open grassland and savanna helps them find food.
The IUCN's 2020 global assessment lists the species as Endangered, with an estimated 6,700 to 67,000 mature individuals and a decreasing population. Listed threats include housing and urban development, crops and livestock farming, hunting and trapping, human disturbance, changes to fire regimes and drought; SANBI adds that small numbers are captured for the international pet trade.
The Peregrine Fund notes that over-grazed land holds little prey and that clearing for settlements and fields removes the habitat it needs. The species was protected under the 1968 African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, and Britannica describes it as protected in most African nations. SANBI's reading list includes a 2014 study that used citizen-science data to examine its population trends in South Africa.
IUCN Red List
How is the secretarybird doing in the wild?
- Least Concern
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered (this animal)
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Endangered
At very high risk of disappearing from the wild.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3
Amazing facts
-
A secretarybird's kick is faster than a blink.
A secretarybird's foot touches its target for only about 15 thousandths of a second, a tenth of the time it takes you to blink.
Measured strike contact times averaged 15 milliseconds, about a tenth of a 150-millisecond blink, too brief for the bird to correct a kick mid-strike.
-
Secretarybirds walk a very long way every day.
Secretarybirds walk about 20 to 30 kilometers a day while they hunt.
Foraging on foot, secretarybirds cover roughly 20 to 30 kilometers a day, within territories of up to about 50 square kilometers.
-
Its name means "archer of snakes."
Its scientific name, Sagittarius serpentarius, means "the archer of snakes."
The Dutch naturalist Arnout Vosmaer suggested the name Sagittarius in 1769 because he thought the bird's gait looked like an archer's; serpentarius refers to snakes.
-
Secretarybird parents feed their chicks soft, mushy food.
Most birds of prey tear up food for their chicks, but secretarybirds bring food back up from their crops to feed them.
Unlike most raptors, secretarybirds regurgitate food stored in the crop for their nestlings, and they often raise more than one chick successfully.
Words to know
- bird of prey
- a bird that hunts animals using sharp claws and a hooked beak
- crest
- a group of feathers that sticks up on a bird's head
- savanna
- a warm, grassy land with scattered trees
- venomous
- able to inject poison with a bite or sting
- crop
- a pouch in a bird's throat where food is stored
- endangered
- at risk of disappearing from the wild
Discovery challenge
-
How does a secretarybird catch its food?
How does a secretarybird usually hunt?
Which describes the secretarybird's main hunting method?
- Diving into the sea
- Walking and stamping on prey
- Hanging upside down in trees
Show the answer
Walking and stamping on prey
It walks through the grass and stamps on its food.
It walks across the savanna, chases prey and stamps on it or kicks it.
It forages on foot and kills prey with rapid, forceful foot strikes, swallowing most items whole.
-
What do secretarybirds eat the most?
What makes up most of a secretarybird's diet?
According to SANBI, which group of animals makes up most of the secretarybird's diet?
- Snakes only
- Insects and other small creatures
- Grass and seeds
Show the answer
Insects and other small creatures
They eat lots of bugs like grasshoppers, and some snakes too.
Most of their food is insects and other small creatures, such as grasshoppers and beetles. They catch snakes too, but not most of the time.
Arthropods such as grasshoppers, beetles and scorpions dominate; snakes, including venomous ones, are taken but are not the main food.
-
Where do secretarybirds live?
On which continent do secretarybirds live in the wild?
Which region is the secretarybird endemic to?
- Africa
- South America
- Antarctica
Show the answer
Africa
Secretarybirds live in Africa.
They live in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert.
Sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal to Somalia and South Africa.
-
How are secretarybirds doing in the wild?
What is the secretarybird's conservation status?
How did the IUCN's 2020 assessment list the secretarybird?
- Endangered
- Least Concern
- Extinct
Show the answer
Endangered
They are endangered. There are fewer than before, and laws in many countries protect them.
They are endangered, mainly because they are losing their grassland homes.
Endangered, with 6,700 to 67,000 mature individuals and a decreasing trend, mainly from habitat loss.
Places where you might see it
-
Watch
Country
Kenya
Kenya is a country in East Africa, crossed by the equator. It has the snow-capped Mount Kenya, the deep Great Rift Valley, Lake Victoria and a long Indian Ocean coast, and about 54 million people live there, many of them speaking Swahili.
-
Watch
Country
South Africa
South Africa is the southernmost country in Africa, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. A high plateau covers most of it, about 63.5 million people (2026) live there, and it has 12 official languages and three capital cities.
Explore next
-
Watch
3D
Animal
Red-tailed hawk
The red-tailed hawk is probably the most common hawk in North America. It soars in wide circles over fields or waits on a pole or fence post, watching for voles, mice and rabbits, then drops down to catch them with its sharp talons.
-
Watch
3D
Animal
Common ostrich
The common ostrich is the tallest and heaviest bird alive. It cannot fly, but it is the fastest runner on two legs, sprinting at about 70 kilometers an hour across the savannas and deserts of Africa. It also lays the biggest egg of any living animal.
-
Watch
Country
Kenya
Kenya is a country in East Africa, crossed by the equator. It has the snow-capped Mount Kenya, the deep Great Rift Valley, Lake Victoria and a long Indian Ocean coast, and about 54 million people live there, many of them speaking Swahili.
-
Watch
Country
South Africa
South Africa is the southernmost country in Africa, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other. A high plateau covers most of it, about 63.5 million people (2026) live there, and it has 12 official languages and three capital cities.
-
Watch
Animal
Black mamba
The black mamba is a long, slender, very fast snake of the savannas and rocky hills of sub-Saharan Africa. It is gray to brown, gets its name from its inky-black mouth, hunts small mammals by day, and is shy: it would almost always rather slip away from people. It is also highly venomous, so it is a snake to admire from far away.
-
Watch
Animal
Sociable weaver
The sociable weaver is a sparrow-sized bird of the dry savannas of southern Africa. Whole colonies, sometimes hundreds of birds, build and share one enormous thatched nest with many separate rooms. It is among the largest nests built by any bird.
-
Watch
Animal
Grey crowned crane
The grey crowned crane is a gray African crane with a spiky crown of golden feathers, white and red cheeks and a red throat pouch. It is one of only two cranes that can perch in trees. It is the national bird of Uganda, and it is Endangered because its wetlands are disappearing.
-
Watch
Animal
Adélie penguin
The Adélie penguin is a medium-sized penguin, about 70 centimeters tall, with a black back, a white front and a bright white ring around each eye. It breeds in summer on rocky, ice-free ground all around Antarctica, building nests of pebbles, and spends the winter far out at sea among the pack ice.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe how the secretarybird's long legs, scaled feet and hooked bill suit hunting on foot.
- Explain that secretarybirds eat mostly insects and small animals, not only snakes.
- Locate the secretarybird's range in sub-Saharan Africa and describe its savanna habitat.
- Explain why the species is endangered and how grassland protection helps.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a hunter that walks prefer short grass to tall grass?
- Why do you think many people believe secretarybirds eat mostly snakes?
- How could farmers and secretarybirds share the same land?
Try at home or in class
- Time how long it takes to blink using a stopwatch app, then talk about a kick that lasts a tenth of that.
- Walk 1 kilometer with a grown-up and work out how many of those walks a secretarybird makes in a day.
Key vocabulary: bird of prey, crest, savanna, venomous, crop, endangered
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Sagittarius serpentarius (Secretarybird), Red List global assessment 2020 , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Secretarybird , South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
- Secretarybird , The Peregrine Fund
- Secretary bird , San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
- Secretary bird , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Snake-hunting secretary birds use the force of five times their body weight to stamp on and kill their prey , Phys.org (Royal Holloway, University of London)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 24, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.