Is the Secretary Bird Endangered? Causes of Its Decline

Its status on the IUCN Red List

The secretary bird was long thought to be safe because its range is so large, stretching from Senegal to Somalia and south to the Western Cape of South Africa. As more local surveys were carried out, it became clear that the birds were disappearing from many areas. The species was first moved to Vulnerable and then, in 2020, to Endangered, which means it faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

The wide population range reflects how hard these birds are to count. Each pair defends a territory of around 50 km² (19 sq mi), so even healthy populations are thinly spread.

Why secretary birds are declining

Several threats act at once, and most are linked to how people use land.

Loss of open grassland. Secretary birds hunt on foot in short grass. When savanna is turned into cropland, plantations, roads or housing, the habitat simply disappears, and what remains is broken into smaller patches.

Overgrazing. Heavy grazing by livestock can strip and degrade grassland, reducing the insects, rodents and reptiles the birds eat.

Bush encroachment. In other places the problem is the opposite: woody shrubs and tall grass spread into once-open land. Long-term monitoring in South Africa between 1987 and 2013 found declines even in protected areas such as Kruger National Park, linked to this thickening of the vegetation. Secretary birds avoid grass taller than about 1 m (3 ft 3 in), so a reserve can become unsuitable for them without any obvious damage.

Power lines and fences. These large birds fly low when taking off and landing, and they can collide with overhead lines and fences, often fatally.

Drowning. In South Africa, birds have drowned in steep-sided farm reservoirs, which they may use to drink or bathe but cannot easily climb out of.

Disturbance and capture. Nesting pairs can abandon nests if disturbed. In some regions, birds are also taken for trade or used in traditional medicine, and traditional respect for the bird, which once protected it in many areas, has weakened.

Why breeding is slow to recover

Secretary birds breed slowly, which makes losses hard to replace. A pair lays only one to three eggs, incubates them for about 45 days, and cares for the chicks for 2–3 months in the nest. When food is short, only one chick may survive. Young birds that leave the nest must then find their own territory in an increasingly crowded landscape. A species like this cannot bounce back quickly from even a modest rise in adult deaths.

Pairs also need a suitable nest site: a dense, thorny tree, often an acacia, standing in open country. Where scattered trees are cleared for farming, or where the landscape fills in with thick bush, good territories with both short grass and a safe nest tree become harder to find, and fewer pairs can breed at all.

What is being done to help

The secretary bird has been protected under the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources since 1968, and it is protected by law in many African countries. It lives in many national parks and reserves, which remain its strongholds.

Conservation work includes:

• Research and tracking. Researchers in South Africa have fitted birds with GPS trackers to learn how far young birds travel and where they die, which helps target action on threats such as power lines.
• Safer infrastructure. Marking power lines and modifying fences and reservoirs can reduce collisions and drownings.
• Grassland management. Controlled burning and sensible grazing keep grass short and open, which suits secretary birds and many other savanna animals.
• Working with farmers. Much of the remaining habitat lies on private farmland, so the support of landowners is essential.
• Captive breeding. Several zoos in Europe and North America breed secretary birds, building knowledge and raising public awareness.

A national symbol under pressure

The secretary bird appears on the coats of arms of South Africa and Sudan, and it has long been admired across Africa for killing snakes and rodents. Its decline is a sign of wider trouble for Africa’s grasslands, which are shrinking under farming, development and changing fire and grazing patterns. Many other grassland species share these pressures; see our list of African savanna animals and the wider list of endangered animals.

The good news is that the birds still breed successfully wherever large areas of open, short grassland remain. Protecting those landscapes, and making the farmland around them safer, gives this remarkable walking raptor its best chance. Learn more about its unusual hunting style in how secretary birds hunt snakes.