secretary bird
- noun
- /ˈsɛkrəˌtɛri bɜrd/
- South African
:
ave secretaria
- The secretary bird gracefully stalks through the tall grass, searching for snakes to hunt.
Examples
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In the savannah, the secretary bird can often be seen hunting reptiles with its long legs.
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Very large birds, such as the flamingo, secretary bird, bustard, crane, pelican, or the stork, and very small birds, such as the bee-eater, sunbird, and swallow, tend not to be killed as a practical matter.
Academic text (1998) -
The snake-hunting secretary bird of Africa, or the cassowary.
Fiction book (1990) -
Many tourists visit Africa hoping to catch a glimpse of the unique secretary bird in its natural habitat.
Synonyms
A large African bird with long legs that walks on the ground to hunt snakes and other reptiles
Surface Forms
Morphology
secretary + bird
This is a lexicalized species name whose specific sense ('a large long‑legged African bird of prey') is not derivable from the constituents. Knowing 'secretary' (office worker) and 'bird' does not transparently indicate the bird's size, habitat, or predatory behaviour, so a B1 learner would not predict the meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
Secretary bird may get its name from the long, loose feathers on its head that look like old writing pens stuck behind an office worker's ear. People thought it looked like a secretary, and that image stuck to the large bird that walks and hunts 'snakes' on the ground.
