Let us begin with the places where these birds live and with how they look, from the crest on the head to the black feathers on the legs. A secretarybird has very long legs for a bird of prey. A secretarybird stands about 0.9 to 1.5 meters tall. A secretarybird has a crest of long black feathers at the back of its head. A secretarybird has mostly gray feathers, with black flight feathers on its wings; secretarybirds live in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. Secretarybirds 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.

Here is how a secretarybird hunts, along with one study that measured a kick. A secretarybird hunts on the ground. Once a secretarybird spots prey, it quickens its pace to take the prey by surprise. If a clump of grass is thick, a secretarybird stamps on it to flush out any prey hiding inside. A secretarybird stamps on small prey with its feet; a secretarybird swallows small prey whole. The kick study used one captive male secretarybird at the Hawk Conservancy Trust, a force plate hidden under artificial grass and a rubber snake pulled across it. In a published study, kicks from a captive secretarybird reached 195 newtons, about five times its body weight. In the same study, the contact between the bird's feet and the rubber snake lasted on average just 15 milliseconds.

Now let us look at what the bird eats, at the claim that it eats only snakes and at what else it swallows. A secretarybird is an opportunistic predator, which means it eats many kinds of prey. The prey a secretarybird takes is listed as anything less than 500 grams. 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; You may have heard that a secretarybird eats nothing but snakes, but secretarybirds do not always eat snakes. Secretarybirds hunt snakes, even venomous ones. A secretarybird sometimes swallows grass and small rocks, probably to aid digestion.

Next, let us follow the bird through its days and see how long it is thought to live. 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. A secretarybird walks at about 2 to 3 kilometres per hour on the ground. A secretarybird walks about 20 to 30 kilometres in a day; when it is startled, a secretarybird runs before it takes off. A secretarybird is usually sedentary, but it can become nomadic when its prey changes in number. Zoo secretarybirds have lived up to 19 years. How long wild secretarybirds live is still unknown, and further study is needed.

Now let us look at where the bird sits among the birds, at the family it belongs to and at the names that people have given it over time. Diurnal birds of prey, those that hunt by day, are the secretarybird's closest relatives. A secretarybird is the only species in its family, the Sagittariidae. A secretarybird's scientific name means "bowman" in Latin, and it is also called "the archer of snakes." One explanation for the name secretary is that the long feathers on the bird's neck look like a quill pen tucked behind a scribe's ear.

Now let us look at what is known about how many secretarybirds there are, at how the counts were made and at what the surveys and atlas data can and cannot show. As of November 2026, there are local surveys of secretarybirds, but there are no detailed global population surveys. One study of secretarybird numbers in southern Africa used data from the Southern African Bird Atlas Project, a citizen science project. As of November 2026, BirdLife International estimated in 2016 that there were 6,700 to 67,000 mature secretarybirds. As of November 2026, declines of secretarybirds across Africa were first noticed by BirdLife partners, other bird experts and citizen scientists; Scientists do not yet know all the reasons why secretarybirds are declining.

Next, let us see how this bird is listed and what scientists say about the things that threaten it. As of November 2026, the IUCN Red List lists the secretarybird as Endangered; it was last assessed in April 2020. As of November 2026, secretarybirds are listed in Appendix II of CITES, which means trade in them is controlled. Grasslands are rapidly being replaced by farmland, which is one reason scientists give for secretarybird declines. As of November 2026, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance library lists burning of grasslands, loss of prey and spreading cultivation as threats to secretarybirds; Losing the places where they live is a threat to secretarybirds. Conservation groups keep track of where secretarybirds nest.

Last, let us see how a family begins, from the age at which the birds breed to the nest, the eggs and the chicks that leave it. Scientists expect a secretarybird to reach breeding age at 3 or 4 years old, though this is not precisely known. Secretarybirds build their nests in trees. The male and the female secretarybird build the nest together. A secretarybird nest can be as wide as about 2.4 meters across; a secretarybird lays one to three eggs. 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

• milliseconds: tiny time units
• newtons: force units
• opportunistic: eats many kinds
• nomadic: moving around
• mature: full grown
• fledge: leave the nest