I , SecretaryBird It kills and eats poisonous snakes

Here we have a very odd bird indeed, a When hunting the secretary bird sort of buzzard-cum-eagle on stilts! strides slowly and warily through the Why does it have such lanky legs? grass of the savanna, alert to the The answer to this question came not slightest movement on the ground. long ago when it was discovered that Immediately it sees a snake it pounces, secretary birds kill and eat poisonous pinning it down with one talon. It then snakes. These strange birds of prey batters the snake furiously with its have long legs, covered in thick, hard beak, still holding it pinned to the scales, in order to protect them from ground, until it breaks its skull or the furious but futile lashing, writhing spinal column. It eats poisonous and snapping of any snake in the snakes as readily as non-poisonous stamping of their short, curved but ones, and also attacks lizards, tortoises, sharply pointed talons. small mammals and babv birds. Like The secretary bird is not directly all birds of prey it is a r{ne flier, and related to an)' of the other birds of fast too because of its broad wings. At prey, and is. therefore placed in a night it perches in a tree to rest, distinct family of its own. Its name no folding its long legs beneath its body. doubt derives from the crest of black Both sexes take part in the nuptial feathers on its head reminiscent of the display, which consists of flying stunts clerks of the 18th century who had the and a ground 'dance'. The nest, a habit of sticking their goose-feather wide, unruly platform of sticks, is quills in their wigs. usually built at the top of a thorn tree.

Height; 1.2 m (4 ft) Wing-span: 2 to 2.2 m (6% to 7 y..ft)

Phylum; Family; Genus and species; Vertebrata Sagittariidae Sagittarius serpentarius @ 1975. Editions Rencont,e S.A.. Lausanne Photo J. Pato - Prensa Espanola @ 1976. English translation. Editions Rencont,e S.A.. Lausanne Printed in Japan 1305713.307