Eye-to-Eye with a Secretary Bird
Jan 11, 10:43 PM

While I was in Kenya we came across a bird with long legs like a stork or a crane. It bobbed its head back and forth as it stalked through the tall grass. Its beak was not stork-like it was the sharp hooked beak of a raptor; a beak made to tear flesh.

It was unlike any bird I had ever seen in the wild. With long crown feathers the secretary bird stands alone in its class Sagittariidae. This unique bird of prey can reach 4.5 feet in height. It walks like a stork but with it’s curved beak and taloned feet it hunts small animals on the savannah. When I was in Africa it was difficult to get a sense of the birds actual size because I was almost always watching from the safety of a vehicle. I again had a chance to meet this tall predatory bird at the world famous San Diego Zoo. The exhibit allows you to be on the same ground plane as the bird giving you an accurate sense of the animal’s actual size, which is ideal for painting or sculpting.

This day I found myself only with my sumi ink pens and India ink bottles, so I went to work studying the secretary bird with quick gesture paintings. I worked quickly watching it strut around its enclosure on its long legs and stumpy talons. Kneeling down while I painted gave me an eye-to-eye view of this stunning and strange bird.

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