Word.ws English Dictionary

secretary bird

/ˈsɛkɹəˌtɛɹɪ bɜːd/

secretary bird noun: a large terrestrial bird of prey, Sagittarius serpentarius, native to Africa with very long legs that preys on reptiles, especially snakes.

secretary bird: a large terrestrial bird of prey, Sagittarius serpentarius, native to Africa with very long legs...
Image: Jonathan Hornung, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

secretary bird (plural secretary birds)

  1. A large terrestrial bird of prey, Sagittarius serpentarius, native to Africa with very long legs that preys on reptiles, especially snakes.

secretary bird meaning in Tamil, Arabic, Malay and Indonesian

secretary bird in Tamil

நமது பூமியில் காணப்படும் பறவைகளில், இது ஒரு சிறப்பு இனமாகும்

secretary bird in Arabic

member of bird family
كَاتِب kātib

secretary bird in Malay

member of bird family
burung katib

secretary bird in Indonesian

member of bird family
burung sekretaris

Forms of secretary bird

pluralsecretary birds
alternative formsecretarybird

Origin of secretary bird

Probably so named because its crest of long feathers resembles quill pens stuck behind the ears of an office clerk. Alternatively, possibly from Arabic صَقْر اَلطَّائِر (ṣaqr aṭ-ṭāʔir, “hunter bird”), from صَقْر (ṣaqr, “falcon, hawk”) طَائِر (ṭāʔir, “bird”).

Questions about secretary bird

What does secretary bird mean?
Secretary bird means a large terrestrial bird of prey, Sagittarius serpentarius, native to Africa with very long legs that preys on reptiles, especially snakes.
What is secretary bird in Tamil?
Secretary bird in Tamil is நமது பூமியில் காணப்படும் பறவைகளில், இது ஒரு சிறப்பு இனமாகும். See Secretary bird meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is secretary bird?
Secretary bird is a noun.
How do you pronounce secretary bird?
Secretary bird is pronounced /ˈsɛkɹəˌtɛɹɪ bɜːd/ (UK).
What is the plural of secretary bird?
The plural of secretary bird is secretary birds.

Words near secretary bird in the dictionary

  1. secretaries
  2. secretaries general
  3. Secretaries of State
  4. secretaries-general
  5. secretary
  6. secretary bird
  7. secretary birds
  8. secretary desk
  9. secretary desks
  10. secretary general
  11. secretary hand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: secretary bird (page history and authors); secretary bird (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-secretary bird.wav.

Cite this entry: “secretary bird.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/secretary_bird. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.