Latin:
Afrikaans:
French:
German:
T
Sagittarius serpentarius
Sekretarisvoël
Messager serpentaire
Sekretär
he Latin word Sagittarius means ‘bowman’ or
archer’ and refers to the bird’s upright posture; serpentarius translates as ‘interested in
snakes’.
The name ‘Secretarybird’ might have been derived either from the appearance of the bird’s crest resembling
the quill pens that olden-day secretaries used to tuck
behind their ears, or from the Arabic saqr et-tair meaning ‘hunter-bird’.
Article by Tracy Chalmers
Eagle Encounters
Photos provided
Field recognition
An easily identifiable, very large raptor which stands
approximately 1.3m tall. Could possibly be confused
with a crane, stork or heron, except for the hooked
beak, quill-like crest feathers and particularly lengthy
innermost tail feathers. The Secretarybird has extremely long legs, with what looks something like black riding shorts on the upper half. With the exception of the
crest, ‘riding shorts’, flight feathers, rump and belly,
the Secretarybird’s plumage is mostly grey. It also has