Until now, when mentioning the beauty of birds, people often think of peacocks first because of their colorful plumage. However, nature is vast, with diverse animals, and there are still other species of birds out there that are also extremely beautiful and gorgeous, even making people jealous of their beauty, and one of them is the Secretarybird – a yellow bird in the village with long legs and curved eyelashes.
With its outstanding appearance, the name “secretary bird” is too suitable for this special bird.
Secretarybird or snake-eating kite, is a bird belonging to the Sagittariidae family (scientific name Sagittarius serpentarius). In addition to the rigid, long and dry scientific names of this species, people often call it by another name, which is the secretary bird. They call it that because of its appearance with a tuft of feathers on its head like the quill pens often worn on the heads of secretaries in 18th century Europe.
Besides the special name that you will remember once you hear it, secretarybird also has super long legs and super long, shiny and beautiful curly eyelashes that every woman is jealous of. This characteristic is proof that the name secretary is more suitable and memorable than any other name.
This bird is endemic to Africa, often occurring in sparse grasslands and savannas in the sub-Saharan region. It can be easily recognized thanks to its large body that somewhat resembles an eagle or falcon. An average secretary bird is about 1.3m tall, weighs 3.3kg, is about 112cm to 150cm long, and has a wingspan of 191cm to 225cm. Because of that feature, it is larger than any daytime bird of prey.
This species possesses a pair of luxurious eyelashes that every girl desires.
Although its elegant appearance is a bit “feminine”, it is a notorious killer in nature. It hunts by walking around looking for prey in the grassland, and when needed, it can still speed up and run to catch prey. The main food of the secretary bird is small mammals, reptiles, birds, and insects. And true to its name, it cannot say no to snakes, even poisonous snakes are not its opponents.
When encountering prey, it will chase and use its beak and legs to attack the opponent to death. In addition, the snake-eating kite will spread its wings and raise the feathers on the back of its head to scare the prey. Some studies suggest that terror birds that lived 5 million years ago in the age of dinosaurs had similar hunting tactics.
Although they mainly move on their feet on the ground and can travel more than 30km a day to hunt, that doesn’t mean the secretary bird cannot fly.
With long legs, the secretary bird is one of the birds with the strongest kicks in the animal world. Its kick has a “gentle” force of about 195 Newtons, 5-6 times stronger than its weight. its own body mass. It strikes so quickly that the entire action happens within 1/10 of the blink of our eye. Not only beautiful, strong, and domineering, the secretary bird is also equally intelligent. When hunting, it knows how to take advantage of nearby fires, picking up trash everywhere to burn, making it impossible for small prey to escape the fire.
Secretary birds can mate at any time of the year, depending on the amount of food at that time. The species’ way of courting a mate is very simple, male and female birds will spread their wings and chase each other across the grassland. The couple will build their happy home together. They often use tree branches, fur, leaves, and grass to make a large nest about 2.4 meters long and will use it for many years.
After hatching, the chicks will be well taken care of by their parents. Unlike many other birds of prey, secretary birds are super brave parents who raise their chicks very kindly. Only when you know how to hunt, fly and use your legs effectively will you be able to survive. It will take about 12 weeks for the young birds to have enough feathers and wings to confidently go out to survive without their parents.
Secretary birds are one of the few birds of prey that can successfully nurse their young.
Because of its specialness, the secretary bird was honored to appear on the logo and national flag of Sudan as a symbol of victory and on the military insignia of South Africa, symbolizing protection. guard. Since 1968, the species has been protected by the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and more and more practical activities from many zoos are contributing to raising awareness of the importance of the species. species.
