secretary bird

See also: secretarybird

English

Alternative forms

secretarybird

Etymology

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”).

This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.
Particularly: “It is possible the secretary element is a folk-etymological alteration of either translingual Sagittarius or translingual serpentarius, the two elements of the species' taxonomic name?”

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛkɹəˌtɛɹɪ bɜːd/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Noun

secretary bird (plural secretary birds)

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

Translations

member of bird family

Afrikaans: sekretarisvoël (af)
Amharic: please add this translation if you can
Arabic: كَاتِب (ar) m (kātib)
Azerbaijani: katib quşu
Bari: please add this translation if you can
Bulgarian: пти́ца-секрета́р f (ptíca-sekretár)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 蛇鷲 / 蛇鹫 (shéjiù), 鷺鷹 / 鹭鹰 (lùyīng), 秘書鳥 / 秘书鸟 (mìshūniǎo)
Dinka:
Southwestern Dinka: adhil
Dutch: secretarisvogel (nl) m, secretaris (nl) m
Estonian: kurgkotkas (et), sekretärlind
Finnish: sihteerilintu (fi), sihteeri (fi)
French: messager sagittaire (fr) m, messager secrétaire m, messager serpentaire m
Georgian: ფრინველმდივანი (prinvelmdivani)
German: Sekretär (de) m
Hungarian: kígyászkeselyű (hu)
Indonesian: burung sekretaris
Irish: rúnaí m
Italian: uccello segretario m, serpentario (it) m
Japanese: ヘビクイワシ (ja) (hebikuiwashi)
Korean: 뱀잡이수리 (baemjabisuri)
Malay: burung katib
Manx: screeudeyr m
Murle: please add this translation if you can
Navajo: giní jáádnézí
Nuer: please add this translation if you can
Polish: sekretarz (pl) m
Portuguese: secretário (pt) m, serpentário m
Romanian: pasăre secretar f
Russian: пти́ца-секрета́рь (ru) f (ptíca-sekretárʹ)
Slovene: tajnik (sl) m
Spanish: serpentario m
Swahili: ndege katibu
Swedish: sekreterarfågel c
Turkish: sekreter kuşu (tr), yılan akbabası (tr)
Ukrainian: птах-секретар m (ptax-sekretar)
West Flemish: please add this translation if you can
Zande: please add this translation if you can