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Ostrich
The ostrich or common ostrich is either one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio, which is in the ratite family. In 2014, the Somali ostrich was recognized as a distinct species.
Physical characteristics
The ostrich is the world’s largest bird. It stands up to a massive 2.7m tall and weighs as much as 159kg – that’s around 1m taller than the average man, and the weight of two men combined!
This flightless bird has a long, bare neck, long, sturdy legs and a bulky body covered with feathers. Males and females have different colored feathers – males sport black plumage with a white tail, and females are mostly brown. Both sexes have small heads, a short, wide beak and big brown eyes protected by long dark lashes.
Ostriches huge eyes (which are bigger than their brains!) give them excellent eyesight.
Behavior
Habitat
Found across Africa’s hot savannahs and open woodland.
Diet
Ostriches are mainly vegetarian, eating roots, leaves, flowers and seeds. But they will also eat insects, lizards and other small creatures, too. They generally live in the vicinity of grazing animals such as wildebeest, antelopes and zebras, and together they form a great partnership – the grazers stir up insects and rodents for the ostriches to eat, and the ostriches help alert the grazers to dangers such as approaching lions.
Did you know?
Sources:
https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/animals/birds/ostrich-facts/
https://onekindplanet.org/animal/ostrich/
The ostrich or common ostrich is either one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio, which is in the ratite family. In 2014, the Somali ostrich was recognized as a distinct species.
Physical characteristics
The ostrich is the world’s largest bird. It stands up to a massive 2.7m tall and weighs as much as 159kg – that’s around 1m taller than the average man, and the weight of two men combined!
This flightless bird has a long, bare neck, long, sturdy legs and a bulky body covered with feathers. Males and females have different colored feathers – males sport black plumage with a white tail, and females are mostly brown. Both sexes have small heads, a short, wide beak and big brown eyes protected by long dark lashes.
Ostriches huge eyes (which are bigger than their brains!) give them excellent eyesight.
Behavior
- The ostrich might not be able to fly, but it can run.
- Using its long legs, powerful thighs and strong feet, this big bird can cover five meters in a single stride and reach speeds of over 70km per hour!
- When zooming along at such mega speeds, it holds out its short wings to help it balance.
- This brilliant bird’s strong legs don’t only carry the ostrich where it wants to go – they’re super effective when it comes to self-defense.
- If an ostrich is cornered by a hungry predator, such as a lion, cheetah, leopard or hyena, it will kick with a force powerful enough to kill.
- Each two-toed foot is armed with a ten-centimeter sharp claw.
- When threatened ostriches run although their powerful, long legs can be formidable weapons, capable of killing a human or a potential predator like a lion with a forward kick.
- With their tall height and excellent eyesight, these amazing creatures are great at spotting potential predators from far away.
- But if danger gets too close for comfort, the ostrich will often lie low to hide, stretching its neck along the ground. Its colored feathers help it to blend in with the sandy soil where it lives.
- Ostriches live in groups, called herds, generally made up of around 12 individuals.
- Males compete with one another for control of several females (or hens), and the winner becomes the leader of the herd.
- Each group also has a dominant hen, she will only mate with the alpha male, but he may mate with other females in the herd as well.
- During breeding season, the alpha male makes a nest in the ground and attempts to attract females by dancing.
- His moves include dropping to the ground, shaking his wings and tail, and swaying his head and neck from side to side. After mating, the hens lay their eggs in the nest.
- The eggs are the largest eggs in the world, averaging around 15cm long and weighing up to a mega 1.5kg.
- The main female may lay up to 11 eggs, which are positioned in the center of the communal nest where they’re safest, and the other hens lay between two to six eggs.
- The alpha male and dominant female then look after the nest, taking it in turns to incubate the eggs.
- After about 40 days, the new chicks hatch, all feathered and ready to walk! Within days, they leave the nest to follow their parents, who protect them from the hot sun or rain by keeping them huddled under their body or outstretched wings.
- By the time the young ostriches are 18 months old, they are fully grown and have become record-breaking birds, just like their parents.
Habitat
Found across Africa’s hot savannahs and open woodland.
Diet
Ostriches are mainly vegetarian, eating roots, leaves, flowers and seeds. But they will also eat insects, lizards and other small creatures, too. They generally live in the vicinity of grazing animals such as wildebeest, antelopes and zebras, and together they form a great partnership – the grazers stir up insects and rodents for the ostriches to eat, and the ostriches help alert the grazers to dangers such as approaching lions.
Did you know?
- The flightless ostrich is the world’s largest bird.
- Ostriches have three stomachs.
- Ostriches are the fast runners of any birds or other two-legged animal and can sprint at over 70 km/hr., covering up to 5m in a single stride.
- Ostriches’ running is aided by having just two toes on each foot (most birds have four), with the large nail on the larger, inner toe resembling a hoof.
- Ostriches’ wings reach a span of about 2 meters and are used in mating displays, to shade chicks, to cover the naked skin of the upper legs and flanks to conserve heat, and as “rudders” to help them change direction while running.
- When threatened ostriches run although their powerful, long legs can be formidable weapons, capable of killing a human or a potential predator like a lion with a forward kick.
- Ostriches normally spend the winter months in pairs or alone and during breeding season and sometimes during extreme rainless periods they live in nomadic ‘herds’ of five to 50 birds led by a top hen, that often travel together with other grazing animals, such as zebras or antelopes.
- Territorial fights between males for a harem of two to seven females usually last just minutes, but they can easily cause death through slamming their heads into opponents.
- Ostriches perform a complex mating ritual consisting of the cock alternating wing beats until he attracts a mate, when they will go to the mating area and he will drive away all intruders.
- They graze until their behavior is synchronized, then the feeding becomes secondary and the process takes on a ritualistic appearance.
- The cock will then excitedly flap alternate wings again, and start poking on the ground with his bill. He will then violently flap his wings to symbolically clear out a nest in the dirt. Then, while the hen runs circle around him with lowered wings, he will wind his head in a spiral motion. She will drop to the ground and he will mount for copulation.
- All of the herd’s hens place their eggs in the dominant hen’s 3m-wide nest, though her own are given the prominent center place; each female can determine her own eggs amongst others.
- The giant eggs are the largest of any living bird at 15cm long and weighing as much as two dozen chicken eggs, though they are actually the smallest eggs relative to the size of the adult bird.
- The eggs are incubated by the dominant female by day and by the male by night, using the coloration of the two sexes to escape detection of the nest, as the drab female blends in with the sand, while the black male is nearly undetectable in the dark.
- When the eggs hatch after 35 to 45 days’ incubation, the male usually defends the hatchlings and teaches them to feed, although males and females cooperate in rearing chicks.
- Contrary to popular belief, ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand: the myth probably originates from the bird’s defensive behavior of lying low at the approach of trouble and pressing their long necks to the ground in an attempt to become less visible.
- Their plumage blends well with sandy soil and, from a distance, gives the appearance that they have buried their heads in the sand.
- The Ostrich is farmed around the world, particularly for its decorative feathers and also for its meat which is marketed commercially and its skin is used for leather products.
- Ostriches have inspired cultures and civilizations for 5,000 years in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
- In some African countries, people race each other on the back of ostriches with special saddles, reins, and bits.
- The wild ostrich population has declined drastically in the last 200 years, with most surviving birds in game parks or on farms.
- Unlike most birds the males have a copulatory organ, which is retractable and 20 cm long.
- Lacking teeth, ostriches swallow pebbles to grind their food. An adult ostrich carries about 1kg of stones at any one time.
- Ostriches can go without drinking for several days, using metabolic water and moisture in ingested roots, seeds and insects, but they enjoy liquid water and frequently take baths where it is available.
- The ostrich has the largest eye of any land animal, measuring almost 5 cm across, allowing predators such as lions to be seen at long distances.
Sources:
https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/animals/birds/ostrich-facts/
https://onekindplanet.org/animal/ostrich/
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