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Animal Themes
Birds
Grasslands

Secretary Birds

Secretary Birds
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.89

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    captivity, dealing, eyesight, possibly, poisonous, theory, world, actually, eye-catching, savannahs, superb, superior, however, secretary, among, familiar
     content words:    United States, South Africa

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Other Languages
     Spanish: El Pájaro Secretario

Secretary Birds   
1     In the world of birds, there is a group most famous for their superior hunting skills. We call them birds of prey or raptors. For a bird to be categorized as such, it must have excellent eyesight, muscular legs, sharp claws, and hooked beaks. Can you think of a bird of prey? Sure, the national bird of the United States - the bald eagle - is one excellent example! Other familiar birds of prey include hawks, vultures, and falcons.
 
2     Among these fierce predators, secretary birds are the only birds of prey that have a pair of crane-like long legs. We can find secretary birds throughout African savannahs. Standing up to more than 3 feet tall, secretary birds are most recognizable by their long, black head crests or feathers. In fact, these feathers are possibly how secretary birds got their name - back in the 19th century, British law secretaries often carried their quill pens in their wigs. The resemblance of the bird's head crests to a secretary's quill pens is one popular theory of why we called the animal the secretary bird.

Paragraphs 3 to 4:
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