In this quick tutorial you'll learn how to draw a Secretary Bird in 7 easy steps - great for kids and novice artists.
The images above represent how your finished drawing is going to look and the steps involved.
Below are the individual steps - you can click on each one for a High Resolution printable PDF version.
At the bottom you can read some interesting facts about the Secretary Bird.
Make sure you also check out any of the hundreds of drawing tutorials grouped by category.
How to Draw a Secretary Bird - Step-by-Step Tutorial
Step 1: Draw a circle for the head. Add two sharp curves for the beak. Draw a big L-shape by the head, and a big curve beneath the beak. Add zig-zags to the last two lines for feathers.
Step 2: Give it a seed-shaped eye, and a bunch of straight and curved lines coming out of the head.
Step 3: Draw a wavy diamond shape as shown in the image for a wing.
Step 4: Add a zig-zagging, triangle shape on the end of the body.
Step 5: Add another zig-zag line beneath the tail.
Step 6: For a leg, draw two lines going down and to the end of the body, then two longer lines coming together down to the front of the body. Add three lines going forward and one backward for toes.
Step 7: Draw a second leg like the first. You did it! You can color the face orange, the legs and tail black, and the rest of the body grey. Although they can fly, these birds hunt for prey on foot.
Interesting Facts about the Secretary bird
The secretary bird is a large bird of prey that can be found throughout most of the eastern Africa and some countries in south Africa as well. Most commonly these birds are found in grasslands as well as wide open savanna with some small tress. They can also be found in farmlands where cereals are grown and grassy, open clearings. These birds are rather large and will grow to be around 1.2m tall.
Did you know?
- The secretary bird gets its very unusual name because of the way that the small feathers that stick out from the back of its head resemble when old fashioned secretaries would carry quill-pens tucked behind their ears
- The most commonly consumed foods by this large bird of prey are insects and small animals that the bird will stamp its feet on before swallowing its prey whole
- This bird is sometimes also referred to as Africa’s marching eagle because even though it is able to fly, it chooses to stay on the ground being able to walk close to 30km in one day
- Because this bird is able to travel such long distances on foot in one day, it is often doing a wide range of traveling in order to find the food and other resources that it needs
- The secretary bird has longer legs than any other raptor bird and has to bend them to be able to eat or drink
How to Draw a Secretary Bird – Step-by-Step Tutorial