Secretary Birds and Crested Caracaras: Old World and New World Ground-Hunting Raptors

Despite belonging to different families and living on different continents, secretary birds and crested caracaras have much in common. They have similar habits, especially as ground hunters, and fill similar niches in their respective habitats, the secretaries in the Old World and the caracaras in the New World.

Secretary Bird
The secretary bird is an African raptor (Sagittarius serpentarius, the sole member of the family Sagittaridae). It is the only living bird of prey that hunts almost entirely on foot.

The secretary bird probably gets its name (first recorded in the 1700s) from its crest of 20 long black feathers, which resemble the quill pens that office secretaries formerly used.

It is up to 4 feet long, weighs about 8 pounds, and has a wingspan of 7 feet. Its body is light gray, with black on the wings, thighs, and central tail feathers. The powerful hooked beak is backed by an area of bare red skin.

Unlike other raptors, the secretary bird has extremely long legs. Indeed, its legs are its primary feature in appearance, behavior, and feeding.

The secretary bird is mainly a terrestrial bird, taking flight only occasionally. It walks and runs well on its long legs, often covering up to 20 miles in a day. If pursued by an enemy, it will usually rely on its foot speed to escape rather than fly away.

The secretary bird is widespread throughout Africa south of the Sahara Desert. It lives in open country, where it walks and searches the ground for food, including lizards, rodents, large insects, tortoises, small mammals, and even other birds.

Often it scares up prey by stamping on grass and other areas where animals are hiding. It also uses its powerful legs to kick and kill or stun larger prey.

The secretary bird's main prey is snakes. It may stamp on the snake, use its strong toes to grab the snake and beat it against the ground, toss it into the air and let it fall to the earth several times to stun it, or even drop it while flying. Meanwhile, the bird uses its large wings to ward off bites from the snake.

The secretary bird also feeds on carrion left over after bush and grass fires kill small animals that fail to escape the flames.

Mates build a large stick nest in the fork of a tree. The female lays 2 or 3 eggs, which take about 50 days to hatch. The young fly after about 8 weeks.

Crested Caracara
The crested caracara (Polyborus plancus) is any of various long-legged New World birds that look like hawks but are classified as members of the falcon family.

Caracara is a Spanish word that comes from the name of the bird in Tupi (a native language of Brazil). The name imitates the bird's call.

The crested caracara is 19-23 inches long, weighs 1.75 to 3.5 pounds, and has a 4-foot wingspan. It is mostly black, with a black cap and a small black crest at the back of the head. But it has pale sides on its back and neck, a mostly white tail, and white patches at the ends of its dark wings. Like the secretary bird, the crested caracara has red skin on the face.

It also has a great deal more in common with the African raptor.

Like the secretary bird, the crested caracara is an unusual raptor for spending so much time on the ground. It walks and runs well, and it is the most terrestrial bird in the falcon group. Compared with most raptors, the crested caracara has long, strong legs.

Like the secretary bird, the crested caracara prefers an open habitat, including pastureland on farms and ranches. The American bird lives in Arizona, Texas, Florida, and most areas of Central and South America.

Like the secretary bird, the crested caracara hunts mostly while walking on the ground. It feeds largely on live food, such as snakes, turtles, small mammals, insects, and nesting birds. And, like the African bird, it will also eat carrion.

Like the secretary bird, the crested caracara usually builds a stick nest in a tree, sometimes in a cactus or on the ground. The female usually lays 2 or 3 eggs that are incubated for 28-32 days. The young fly after about 3 months.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004 (CD-ROM).

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.