Kite eating snakes

Snake-eating kites called Sagittarius serpentarius live in wild grasslands in the South Sahara. Westerners also named them "secretary birds". The reason is called "Snake-eating Kites" because of their excellent ability to control and re-eat any snake regardless of that snake has a strong venom. In fact, the Sagittarius serpentarius bird will also die if bitten by poisonous snakes.

Sagittarius serpentarius bird snakes are also very strange: It grabs the snake with strong toenails and smashes the snake's head to death, protecting itself from being bitten by its big feathered wings. Sometimes it grabs the snake and throws the snake up several times, causing the prey to faint. He knows how to check the snake carefully before swallowing. In South Africa, people often raise these birds to kill snakes and rats.

Snake-eating kites often use strong trampling to kill their prey. Most animals that crawl on the ground like insects, lizards, snakes or some small mammals can become prey. They can run after catching prey, in addition to using mines to scour, Sagittarius serpentarius bird still trampled on the grass to make the prey panic.

When chased, Sagittarius serpentarius bird often walks quickly out of danger, or can spread its wings and run. But if it is too dangerous, they can soar. They know based on the heat from the ground rising to fly very high and far. Although they fly well, they rarely fly.

This bird works mainly during the day. Long legs, long stride steps, each day they walk about 30km. At night, they parked on tree branches. My body is longer than 1m, weighs about 4kg, although it is a hunting bird but they are not like other common bird of prey in that they have long legs, long wings and long tails.

This bird is famous for being faithful, although monogamy comes to life but it is strange that the male and female are not in the same place. Males and females are usually a short distance away from each other.

They are also particularly fond of staying in a certain area.During the breeding season, all Sagittarius serpentarius pairs become aggressive , they chase all opponents into their territory.

The nest is made from tree branches, horizontal to 2.4m even though it is only for 2-3 eggs. They like to nest on hemp, the nest is often difficult to detect and difficult to climb from below. The bird is very affectionate: The female bird hatches eggs for 44-48 days, during which time the male chicks find their way back to the female. The eggs are white, it takes about 50 days to hatch. Young birds can fly about 8-10 weeks of age.

Sagittarius serpentarius is quite wise : they often have a habit of gathering in areas that have just happened - because there are many prey that are seriously injured or have no shelter.

Snake-eating kites are a type of quiet bird, except for a few rare cries when they flirt.