The Order Falconiformes is separated into five families.  One of these families is Sagittariidae.  Most families have lots and lots of birds in them.  The unusual thing about this family is that there is only one bird in it.  This means that when the scientists were separating all of the birds in the world into their Orders and Families, this bird had similarities to all Falconiformes but was also different from all of them, too.
     The Secretary Bird is the only bird in the Family Sagittariidae.  It is like the rest of the Falconiformes because it:

	It captures and kills live prey.
	It hunts during the day [diurnal].
	It has a hooked beak.
	It has really good eyesight.
	It rides the thermals.

     The Secretary Bird is separated from the other Falconiforme families and put into its own.  This was done because this bird is different from the other families in these ways:

	It does not use its talons to kill its prey.
	It has long legs that make it look like a stork.
	It has really long tail feathers.
	It usually runs to get its prey and then stomps on it until it dies.
	Instead of ripping apart prey with its talons like the other birds, the Secretary Bird will tear its prey apart with its beak.

Birds from this family on our site:

Secretary Bird

Works cited: 

“Birds of prey [Day raptors].”   14 Jan. 2008.  <http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/animals1/bird/falcon.html>.

“Secretarybird Sagittariidae.”  18 Oct. 2007.  <http://montereybay.com/creagrus/secretarybird.html>.

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