Probably there is no such variety and number of birds on any continent of the world as in Africa: 90 families, comprising 22 orders. Among them, and a well-known bird with a funny name, is the secretary.
The bird-secretary got its strange name thanks to the French colonists. The fact is that in Arabic its name sounds like "Sacr-e-Tahir", that is, a bird-hunter, which is written in French as secrétaire. Try to read this word out loud and you will hear “secretary”. There is, however, another assumption about the origin of the name, and it is associated with the color of the bird, which is very similar to the clothes of male secretaries of the 1800s.
The secretary bird is very popular in Africa, especially in Sudan, where it has become a state symbol and therefore is depicted on the country's coat of arms. And she has several names: snake-eater, herald, hypogerone.
The appearance of the bird-secretary
It is impossible to confuse with anyone. Mother Nature managed to combine the eagle and the crane in the secretary. From the first he got a powerful bent beak, and from the second
long legs. The snake-eater reaches a height of 1.3-1.4 m with an average body weight of 3.3 kg. Its wingspan is more than 2 meters. On the head there are long hanging feathers, which makes the birds similar to clerks of the XIX century. Two central elongated feathers stand out in the tail. Around the eyes and near the beak plumage is completely absent. The exposed skin in these places has a yellow-orange color (in young animals) or close to a red tint (typical of an adult bird). One can distinguish a male from a female only by the number of feathers on the head and tail. So, for the male secretary bird, a richer plumage is characteristic.
Habitat
These birds of Africa prefer to live south of the Sahara. Their habitat extends from Senegal to Somalia and a little south, up to the Cape of Good Hope. They coexist perfectly at various heights, from coastal plains to highlands. Nevertheless, preference is given to meadows and savannas, rather than forests and shrubs, where it is quite difficult for them to run.
Power Features
The diet of the secretary bird consists of insects, lizards, small birds, eggs, hares, small turtles, rodents and snakes. She hunts mainly on the ground, measuring space in large strides and carefully looking for future prey in the grass. The bird-secretary is especially appreciated by the locals for their ability to find and catch snakes. Finding a snake, it captures its long body with its strong legs with sharp claws and at the same time delivers a powerful blow with its beak to the neck or head. Even a black African cobra bite is not terrible for a snake-eater, because the legs of this bird are reliably protected by a heavy coating consisting of durable scales.
Herald is a twin bird. Choosing a female, the male seduces her during joint flights and sings serenades, consisting of croaking sounds. Once the pair has formed, the birds begin to build a huge nest with a diameter of 2.4 meters. This house made of sticks, fur of killed animals, manure, leaves and grass will last more than one season - several generations of young animals will hatch in it.
Here she is - a secretary bird, which farmers and locals love to tame. But due to deforestation and plowing, this family of birds has come under threat of extinction. Therefore, since 1968, the African Convention on the Protection of Nature has taken them under its protection.
For those who want more details, they want to consider what the secretary bird looks like - the photo below.