Saturday 27 October 2012

Secretary Bird


Masai Mara, Kenya
 
Its common name is popularly thought to derive from the crest of long quill-like feathers, lending the bird the appearance of a secretary with quill pens tucked behind his or her ear, as was once common practice. A more recent hypothesis is that "secretary" is borrowed from a French corruption of the Arabic saqr-et-tair or "hunter-bird". (Wikipedia)
The long legs, which increases the bird’s height to around 1.3 m tall, help him catching his favourite prey: snakes.

12 comments:

Dina said...

Both are interesting theories. I wish we had some secretary birds here, to eat some snakes.

Sylvia K said...

What an interesting bird! He looks as though he has black pants on and he does have LONG legs! Hope your weekend is going well, JM!

Lowell said...

Unusual looking critter. I was going to call it into my office and tell it to take a memo: Beware of rattlers!

Nice shot, JM! What a gorgeous backdrop.

Down to Tampa tomorrow.

Arija said...

A proud looking bird and useful. Our snake catcher, the kookaburra has retuned with the return of the snake season.

travel ufo said...

great one

Cezar and Léia said...

This tall birdie seems to be quite a poser! :)
God bless you!
Cezar

Siddhartha Joshi said...

This is a beautiful shot...love it!

Diane said...

One of my favourite stately birds. Diane

Pooch Purple Reign said...

he sure is funky looking !
i love the terrain behind him !
hope all is well on your side
~ laura

Travel France Online said...

This is great shot as the bird is right in the centre, super! I think that you are right about the name being a French corruption of an arabic word

Stickup Artist said...

This bird looks so noble with it's powerful legs. What a landscape of which to have such dominion!

Joop Zand said...

Great shot with a nice depth.

Greetings, Joop

Have you seen my second blog?
maybe it's like this, too.

http://joopzandfotografie.blogspot.nl