Through the bushes, we glimpsed a tall bird sprinting back and forth in a large enclosure at the Denver Zoo. From a distance, it appeared to be a stork wearing black cut-offs. Up close, it looked like an exotic amalgamation of many birds, with its eagle's beak, peacock's goofy head plumage, and stork's long, jointed legs. Although its otherworldly appearance recalled Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, its name was oddly prosaic: a Secretary Bird. A native of Africa, it is a raptor, but, unlike eagles and hawks, it pursues its prey mostly on foot. Hence the long legs.

The Denver Zoo owns two of these curious creatures. The runner seems to have been the male of the pair, trying to impress his mate. She turned her back on him and folded herself to the ground in a neat, Origami-like series of steps that totally concealed those unlikely legs and made her look, from certain angles, like a seagull wearing one of those feathery hats currently favored by the British aristocracy.