The secretary bird is my favorite land animal. It can grow up to 4.1 to 4.9 feet tall, with a wingspan of 6.9 feet and weight of 5 to 9.4 pounds. They live from ten to fifteen years, sometimes nineteen years if they live in a zoo. They are well known for their snake hunting abilities, and having the longest legs out of any bird of prey. Their features consist of long black quills at the back of their head, long grey and white tailcoat feathers, black feathers along their legs, white feathers along their face and torso, orange/red feathers along their eyes, and a quartz white beak. They are distantly related to buzzards, vultures, harriers, and kites. Secretary birds spend most of their time on the ground, yet they can still fly incredibly well, and often nest in acacia trees. Secretary birds are often found in the south of the Sahara Desert. in Africa. Secretary birds cover 20 miles a day while hunting, resting during the hottest hour of the day under the shade of a tree and returning to their roost before sunset. Secretary birds mainly eat small mammals, reptiles, birds, and large insects, and are even clever enough to search through a past fire to look for food. They catch their prey by chasing it down, and either stomping on it or beating it with its beak until it dies or passes out, and then swallows whole. Interesting enough, many studies show that dinosaur like birds may have used this same hunting technique before extinction. While the secretary bird is considered very strong and clever, they have weak grasping abilities, and instead of carrying prey with their claws, they either swallow it whole once they catch the prey or they carry it in their beak.