#sagittariidae

[herpsandbirds]

Secretary Birds (Sagittarius serpentarius), family Sagittariidae, order Accipitriformes, Kenya

ENDANGERED.

These birds stand at a maximum height of 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in).

They feed on a wide variety of small animals, including venomous snakes.

Endangered due to habitat destruction.

photograph by Jainy Maria

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

Most birds of prey hunt from the air, using their sharp vision and talons to find and catch prey. One notable exception is the secretary bird, which hunts almost exclusively on the ground. This species has the longest legs of any bird of prey, and the lower half are covered with thick scales that protect the bird from injuries and allow it to hunt its primary food: snakes.

(Image: A secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) showing off its extraordinary legs by Dominic Sherony)

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[critter-captures]

Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius), family Sagittariidae

The only (extant) member in its family, although it falls in the same order as most diurnal birds of prey (like eagles, hawks, and harriers).

Safaripark Beekse Bergen (1st picture), Avifauna (2nd & 3rd pictures), taken July 2024

[adxmanial]

oh shit a dergon based on the secretary bird for Uni, one of the gender birds ever

It’s name is already so metal ( Sagittarius Serpentarius ) and made me think of dragons, so here we are. Their name means “Archer of Snakes,” and much like the bird they are based off of, they are largely terrestrial, their wings smaller than other dragon breeds and used less for flying than leverage for climbing and running. Though they appear more lithe than their stronger western dragon counterparts, Sagittariidae are a lot stronger than they look, being able to easily smash their prey and smaller dragon species with their armored paws. 

[chikorra]

[WIP Kwami OC sheet - Tarii] Except for the Kwami Bird design, the holder's costume and power is not yet official. Btw for anyone wondering I used Marinette to demonstrate the costume when she uses this Miraculous.

*Name: Tarii - from the bird's family name: Sagittariidae. According to Wiki, Secretary Bird is also the only kind of bird that belongs to this family branch) *Animal: Secretary Bird *Concept: Resolution / Resolute Attitude

*Miraculous Accessory:

Camouflage Mode: A signing pen (or any other kind of pen depending on the holders' time, age, hobby, major, and more, such as a pencil, ballpoint pen, mechanical pen, ink pen, feather pen, etc.)

Full charged/ Transformation form: SB Feather Pen - When the holder is transformed, their cos will be hunter-like, and the feather pen could be used for decoration purposes on many parts of the cos or simply used to keep the hair in place like a Chinese hair brooch. (I am still playing around with the ideas)

*Holders' Weapon: A Bow (Its scientific name - Sagittarius means Archer, soooo.. That's why xD)

*Holders' Ability: Shooting light arrows - Unlimited Ammo - Normal attack: 1 shot at a time - AOE - Special attack: 3 shots at a time - Teenage ver can only use this special atk once; it takes a long time to charge and requires staying still; only adults can use this many times and can move but slowly while using it.

*Miraculous Power: Enlighten - Blind the enemies temporarily (by arrows' bright light) - Stun the enemies by making them lost in their own positive thoughts encouraged by the power (that everything has its own solution) - Bonus on Ally: Enhance their will (For e.g: When their lives are at stake and they are about to give up(?)) -> This power can boost their will to keep going no matter the physical and mental conditions. This power is quite dark, so I am still thinking about it... =PLEASE DO NOT COPY MY IDEA + DESIGN - THANK YOU=

[avidex]

Tanzanie, 2017

Le mythique Messager sagittaire (ou Secrétaire ou encore Serpentaire) !

Cet oiseau improbable est le seul représentant de sa famille (les Sagittariidae). Pas très à l'aise au décollage, il préfère la terre ferme mais peut tout de même s'envoler si besoin. Ses pattes disproportionnées lui servent à assommer à coup de pied (sympa) les serpents (et les autres proies) dont il se nourri.

L'oiseau sert de modèle au bras droit du Roi Léonidas, souverain des animaux de l'ïle de Naboombu dans le film de Walt Disney "l'Apprenti Sorcière".

[weirdbabybirds]

Secretary Bird

Source: Zooborns

[this-is-a-nice-stick]

Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius)

© Kalle Rainio

[fascinator-birds]

Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius)

© Lars Petersson

[herpsandbirds]

Secretary Birds (Sagittarius serpentarius), family Sagittariidae, order Accipitriformes, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Southern Africa

ENDANGERED.

These birds stand at a maximum height of 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in).

They feed on a wide variety of small animals, including venomous snakes.

Endangered due to habitat destruction.

photograph by Uwe Sandneurosen

[animalids]

Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius)

Photo by Fabrice Stoger

[birdwatcher-sketches]

Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius)

© sylvain Uriot

[mod-bars]

i did it for art phone with changin human to furry :D

[hello-birdies]

Sagittarius serpentarius by Mustafa Kasapoglu.

[thalassarche]

Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius) - photo by tubasa-wings

Birds’ eyelashes are modified feathers, not hairs, but they serve the same purpose they do in mammals: to help keep dust and debris out of the eyes. Most birds have at least a few small feather-lashes, but the ones that have these extensive lashes tend to be mostly terrestrial or completely flightless.

The secretarybird is a member of the order Accipitriformes, the diurnal birds of prey that includes hawks and eagles. It has the longest legs of any bird of prey, and hunts snakes and lizards by stomping on them.

[shift-shaping]

Top 5 birds

this is an extremely difficult question i hope you know this

First, let's define what a bird is. This probably seems like a pretty easy question, but ask any paleontologist and you'll get like four different answers. From the same person.

Because phylogenetically, it's extremely difficult to say, definitely, what makes a bird a bird. For a drunk, slightly-outdated explanation of why paleontologists don't know what birds are, check out the following video:

It's not my video to be clear, I just really like it for all the confusion it illustrates. One of my favorite ways to piss off my colleagues is to call Triceratops a bird, which nobody likes to hear because it's stupid as fuck, but if feathers make something a bird then, well...

ANYWAY. For the sake of this ask, I'm going to use Avialae as my cutoff for Bird because it sounds pretty and (probably) includes Archaeopteryx but not Dromaeosaurus. Unfortunately this does not include Microraptor, which is very sad because Microraptor is a good little friend. This does, however, probably include the Scansoriopterygids, the real-life wyverns that I wrote a post about here.

Above left: Archaeopteryx, from Nat Geo Kids. Above right: Dromaeosaurus, from Gabriel N.U.

So here are my birds below the cut:

5. Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius)

First off, nice genus name, though I think she's a gemini. This is a gorgeous bird of prey from Subsaharan Africa that looks kind of like a vulture in flight but a bitch on the ground. They kick snakes to death because of course they do. They are the only member of their family, Sagittariidae, which is within Accipitriformes and therefore places them closer to hawks and eagles rather than falcons.

4. Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin)

SKUNK BIRD SKUNK BIRD THESE GUYS ARE FART MONSTERS. They are the only living members of their entire order! Their babies still have claws on their wings! Hoatzin are herbivorous birds from the Amazon that like leaves and fruit and have a weird digestive system convergent on mammalian ruminants. Food ferments in their strange gut which gives them a bad stink and a bad taste. Despite being fairly large, poor fliers, they smell and taste so bad that people don't eat them. In addition, their preferred habitat (swampy marshlands rather than true rainforest) is disappearing slower than the rainforest proper, so these stinky idiots are IUCN Least Concern.

3. Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura)

If you live in the United States and see a fairly large black bird circling above you and trying its damnedest not to flap its wings, it's probably a turkey vulture. They are lazy and have few natural predators. These guys sometimes get a bad rap because their cousins, the black vultures, are not terribly well-behaved and will sometimes attack newborn cattle. Turkey vultures do not kill. They are too lazy. I love them because they refuse to expend effort, even on flying, and that's an entire mood. They're also pretty chill. I met one named Lurch at ZooMontana who was a bro that had been raised as a pet and thought he was a human. Other vultures perplexed him.

2. Confuciusornis

Above is a stunning specimen of Confuciusornis sanctus currently residing at the Natural History Museum of Vienna. It's actually a really common creature in the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation in Northern China. It's small, about the size of a pigeon, and those double tail feathers are not present in every specimen --possibly indicating sexual dimorphism. There's debate over how good these little dudes were at flying, but the most recent evidence I could find suggests they could perform powered flight in short bursts.

There is a persistent myth that paleontologists cannot know what color an extinct animal was. We actually can discern color for particularly well-preserved specimens, though this is an emerging concept with lots of ongoing research. The presence of fossilized melanosomes (organelles visible under a microscope that carry color information for soft tissue) possibly indicates they were a rusty brown color, but other researchers think they may have been closer to gold and white.

Above left from DK Find Out

1. Black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia)

I love these horrible bastards!!!!!! They're so trashy and loud!!!! They are easily one of my favorite animals ever, full stop. They are notorious for eating songbird eggs and chicks, but they actually don't do that terribly often. They prefer ~your garbage~ or, truthfully, nuts and seeds and lots and lots of bugs. Like crows and ravens, magpies (which are also Corvids) follow wolves and other predators to scavenge from their kills. Also like crows and ravens, magpies are highly intelligent. They were the first non-mammal to pass the mirror test, indicating that magpies can very likely recognize themselves in a mirror. Magpies hold funerals (or post-mortems...) for their dead and can be taught human speech.

They are stunningly beautiful animals, but Western culture refuses to understand them and chooses prejudice and ignorance over curiosity and compassion. Let me be clear: if you hate magpies (or really any animal; they're just doing their thing) I do not like you. That sounds harsh, but it is unfathomable to me that a person would actually hate an animal for living its life. They are not gentle, they are not sweet (usually, tw animal death in video: a baby magpie is rescued after its possible siblings were found shot), but they are vibrantly beautiful survivalists that have found a way to thrive among creatures that villainize them. You don't have to love or even like them, but every animal deserves respect. Magpies just deserve a little more. ;)

I can do Eir's favorite birds in another post with more detail, but Tumblr is trying to keep me from spreading the good news by enforcing an image limit so for now, a list of Eir's favorite birbs:

5. Red-tailed hawk. They're fairly large survivalists that live fucking everywhere in the US. She would definitely relate to their hardiness and determination. Also, they're the ones that make the hawk noise (at 0:31).

4. Little blue penguin. I maintain that if Thedas is in the Southern Hemisphere, it should have penguins. Eirwen is not always one to freak out over cute things, but her cold hard heart would absolutely melt for a little blue penguin.

3. These fucking things. Just because they're hilarious.

2. Pigeons. In some life or another, she is a crazy pigeon lady. There's a fun AU! She would love having so many small, chubby, cooing friends to feed and care for. I could see her devoting her retirement to a flock of stupid round bird children because that's just who she is.

1. Carrion crow. Because of course.