Let us begin with the places where these birds live and with the way their bodies are built for walking across them. Secretarybirds live in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert, and they like open places with short grass, such as savanna. A secretarybird looks for grassland where the grass is short enough that its view is not blocked. These birds avoid thick forest and dense woodland. A secretarybird stands about 0.9 to 1.5 meters tall, and it has very long legs for a bird of prey. A secretarybird has short, blunt toes that suit walking. A secretarybird is the only species in its family, the Sagittariidae.

Now let us follow one of these birds through a day and see how far it goes on foot. A secretarybird can fly, but it prefers to walk. One name for the secretarybird is the marching eagle, because of the way it lifts its legs as it walks. It walks at about 2 to 3 kilometres per hour on the ground, and it walks about 20 to 30 kilometres in a day. A secretarybird does not become active until well after sunrise. Mated secretarybird pairs travel together through the day but hunt on their own. When it is startled, a secretarybird runs before it takes off.

Here is how a secretarybird hunts, from the moment it spots its prey to the moment it eats, and how it handles the small animals that it takes. It hunts on the ground. Once it spots prey, it quickens its pace to take the prey by surprise. If a clump of grass is thick, it stamps on it to flush out any prey hiding inside. It stamps on small prey with its feet. These birds sometimes throw their prey high into the air. It swallows small prey whole.

Now let us look at what these birds eat, and at what is true about snakes and their diet. A secretarybird is an opportunistic predator, which means it eats many kinds of prey. Most of what a secretarybird eats is arthropods such as grasshoppers, beetles, wasps, spiders and scorpions. A secretarybird eats small mammals, birds and lizards, and sometimes snakes, and secretarybirds hunt snakes, even venomous ones. You may have heard that it eats nothing but snakes, but secretarybirds do not always eat snakes.

Now let us look at how this bird is listed, and at how conservation groups keep watch. As of November 2026, the IUCN Red List lists the secretarybird as Endangered; it was last assessed in April 2020. Losing the places where they live is a threat to secretarybirds. As of November 2026, secretarybirds are listed in Appendix II of CITES, which means trade in them is controlled. Scientists do not yet know all the reasons why secretarybirds are declining. Conservation groups keep track of where secretarybirds nest.

Last, let us see how a family begins, from the nest and the eggs to the chicks that leave it. Secretarybirds build their nests in trees, and the male and the female build the nest together. A secretarybird nest can be as wide as about 2.4 meters across. A secretarybird lays one to three eggs, and it lays its eggs two to three days apart. Both secretarybird parents take turns sitting on the eggs. A secretarybird egg hatches after about 42 to 46 days. After hatching, secretarybird chicks leave the nest, or fledge, after 64 to 106 days. Secretarybird parents feed their chicks.

Words to know

• opportunistic: eats many kinds
• prey: hunted animals
• Endangered: at risk
• fledge: leave the nest
• CITES: trade rules
• arthropods: bugs, spiders