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Standing about 130 cm tall on stilt-like legs, the Secretary Bird is unusual among birds of prey in hunting on foot, striding across African grasslands and stamping snakes, lizards, small mammals, and large insects to death with a force several times its body weight. It has grey body plumage, black flight and thigh feathers, orange-red bare facial skin, and long black crest feathers trailing from the back of the head. It occupies open savannas and light woodland across sub-Saharan Africa, avoiding dense forest and arid extremes, and builds a platform nest where one to four eggs are incubated for 42 to 46 days; young fledge between 64 and 106 days. Largely silent, it gives a deep, resonant croaking at dawn. Declining across its range, the species is classified as Endangered.