Bird secretary or snake?

On no continent of the world, probably, there is no such diversity and number of birds, as in Africa: 90 families constituting 22 detachments. Among them, and everyone knows a bird with a funny name - secretary.

Its strange name was given to the secretary bird by the French colonists. The fact is that in Arabic its name sounds like "Sakr-e-Tair", that is, a bird-hunter, which in French is written as secrétaire. Try to read this word out loud, and you will hear the "secretary". There is, however, another assumption about the origin of the name, and it is related to the color of the bird, which is very similar to the clothes of the male secretaries of the 1800s.

The secretary bird is very popular in Africa, especially in Sudan, where it became a national symbol and is therefore depicted on the arms of the country. And she has several names: snakehead, herald, hypogeron.

Appearance of bird secretary

It is impossible to confuse with anyone. Mother Nature managed to connect the eagle and the crane in the secretary. From the first he got a powerful bent beak, and from the second long legs. The height of the snakehead reaches 1.3-1.4 m with an average body weight of 3.3 kg. The wingspan is more than 2 meters. On the head there are long hanging feathers, which makes birds similar to clerks of the XIX century. Two central elongated feathers stand out in the tail. Around the eyes and near the beak is completely missing plumage. The bare skin in these places has a yellow-orange color (in young animals) or is close to a red shade (typical for an adult bird). To distinguish the male from the female is possible only by the number of feathers on the head and at the tail. Thus, for a bird-secretary of a male, a richer plumage is characteristic.

Habitat

These birds of Africa prefer to live to the south of the Sahara. Their habitat ranges from Senegal to Somalia and a little to the south, up to the Cape of Good Hope. They perfectly coexist at various heights, from coastal plains to highlands. But still give preference to meadows and savannas, and not to forests and shrubs, where it is difficult for them to run.

Features of food

The diet of the poultry secretary consists of insects, lizards, small birds, eggs, hares, small turtles, rodents and snakes. She hunts mostly on the ground, measuring the space in large steps and carefully looking out for future prey in the grass. Especially appreciated by local residents is a bird secretary for his ability to find and catch snakes. Finding a snake, she grabs her long body with her powerful paws with sharp claws and simultaneously inflicts a powerful blow to the neck or head with a beak. The bite of even the black African cobra for the snake is not terrible, because the legs of this bird are reliably protected by a heavy coating consisting of durable scales.

The herald is a twin bird. Choosing a female, the male deceives her during joint flights and sings the serenades, consisting of croaking sounds. As soon as the pair formed, the birds proceed to construct a huge nest with a diameter of 2.4 meters. This house of sticks, furs of dead animals, manure, leaves and grass will last several seasons - it will hatch several generations of young.

That's what she is - a bird secretary, which is so fond of domesticating farmers and locals. But due to deforestation and plowing of land this feathered family was in danger 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 want to consider what the bird-secretary looks like - the photo below.