Species field guide
Secretarybird identification guide
Sagittarius serpentarius · Secretarybirds · Sagittariidae
Observation focus
How to identify the Secretarybird.
Secretarybirds are unmistakable terrestrial raptors with very long legs, gray-black plumage, orange facial skin, crest feathers, and elongated central tail feathers. Their upright outline provides a shape lesson that no compact songbird duplicates.
- Very long bare legs under an eagle-like body
- Long dark crest feathers behind the head
- Orange facial skin and elongated central tail feathers
Meet the bird
What kind of bird is the Secretarybird?
Secretarybirds are unmistakable terrestrial raptors with very long legs, gray-black plumage, orange facial skin, crest feathers, and elongated central tail feathers. Their upright outline provides a shape lesson that no compact songbird duplicates.
Where to look
Where can you find the Secretarybird?
Scan open grassland for a tall walking raptor and confirm the crest, orange face, black flight feathers, and long central tail rather than treating any long-legged bird as a Secretarybird.
Listen in the field
What does the Secretarybird sound like?
The Bird Tone project owner supplied and approved this Secretarybird call and approved the current recording for publication. Bird Tone keeps the lesson at the generic call level.
Secretarybird call — project-owner recording, recorded by Bird Tone project owner
Open audio fileA Secretarybird call supplied and approved for Bird Tone by the project owner.
Original recording by Bird Tone project owner · Used with permission. Bird Tone stores the cited recording for reliable playback. Bird Tone copied the project-owner-provided AAC/M4A source into the evidence root, removed container metadata, downmixed it to mono, and transcoded the complete recording to Ogg Vorbis at quality 5 with FFmpeg bitexact muxing. The recording loads only when requested and plays only after you press play.
Source check
Where do these identification notes come from?
These notes summarize beginner-facing identification, habitat, and behavior cues. Confirm a bird from several marks, its voice, and the setting rather than one color alone.