Secretarybird

Sagittarius serpentarius

🥾 Kick-hunting raptor📍 Sub-Saharan Africa🔴 Endangered

COOL RATING

OFF THE CHARTS

⚡ FIVE-BODY-WEIGHT KICK

This raptor can strike with five times its own body weight.

Force-plate measurements of one adult Secretarybird found kicks averaging 5.1 times the bird's body weight. Contact lasted only about 15 milliseconds—too fast to adjust after impact.

FORCE_PLATE.EXE

0.0× BW

Measured average: 5.1 body weights from one adult male across 45 kicks.

WHY THIS BIRD MATTERS

The world's only Secretarybird needs an open horizon.

Secretarybirds have declined across African grasslands and savannahs as habitat is fragmented, degraded, converted, or disturbed. BirdLife works with landowners to protect functioning grasslands beyond formal reserves.

The species was uplisted globally to Endangered in 2020. Habitat loss and degradation, poisoning, poaching, and disturbance are among the suspected drivers.

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FORCE_PLATE.LOG

45MEASURED KICKS

One bird. Fourteen trials. Context included.

METHOD NOTE: ONE BIRD, 45 KICKS

The number is spectacular—and the sample deserves context.

The study measured 45 kicks across 14 trials from Madeleine, a trained adult male striking a rubber snake at the Hawk Conservancy Trust.

It was the first direct biomechanical measurement of the behavior, not a species-wide census of kicking power. The result is evidence, not a universal speed limit.

Read the force-plate study ↗

🟢 Internet zoneFacts verified with sources

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