The common ostrich is the tallest and heaviest living bird, and although it can't fly, it is the fastest runner on two legs. It lives in the open savannas and semi-deserts of Africa and does not live wild in the US. Here you can see ostriches at zoos and on farms, especially in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Males stand about 7–9 ft (2.1–2.75 m) tall and weigh 220–290 lb (100–130 kg), with black body feathers and white wing and tail plumes. Females are a bit smaller and grayish brown. Each foot has just two toes, where most birds have four.
- Voice
- Males make a deep booming call by inflating their necks.
Look-alikes
EmuDromaius novaehollandiae
Emus have three toes, shaggy grayish-brown feathers all over, and bluish skin on the neck. Ostriches have two toes and are much taller.
Why they get mixed upBoth are huge flightless birds kept on US farms and in zoos.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- savanna
- semi-desert
- desert edges
- Range
- Native to Africa, mainly the savannas and and the semi-deserts of the southwest. It once lived in Arabia and southwest Asia too. It does not live wild in the US; a small population exists in Australia from escaped farm birds.
- Preferred conditions
- Open country with few trees.
Behavior
- Diet
- Mostly plants: seeds, grasses, shrubs, fruit, and flowers, plus the occasional insect or small animal. It swallows pebbles to help grind food.
- Activity
- It can cruise at about 34 mph (55 km/h) and sprint up to about 43 mph (70 km/h). A cornered ostrich can deliver dangerous slashing kicks.
- Social life
- Often alone or in pairs, but forms roaming groups in the breeding season and dry periods.
Life cycle
- Nest
- The male scrapes a shallow pit, and several females lay in one shared nest.
- Clutch size
- about 20 eggs incubated
- Incubation
- 35–45 days; females sit by day and males by night.
- Time to maturity
- 2–4 years
- Lifespan
- Over 62 years recorded in captivity.
Name and classification
- About the name
- The Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes), once treated as a subspecies, is now widely considered a separate species. Neck color varies by region among common ostriches: pinkish red in the north, pink (with pink thighs) in East Africa, and black in the south.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- LCLeast ConcernLow risk of extinction
- Status
- Hunting for fashion feathers nearly wiped out wild ostriches in the 18th century. Today habitat loss is the main threat, and wild numbers are slowly declining. The North African ostrich is protected from international trade.
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- Ostriches don't bury their heads in sand; the myth likely goes back to the Roman writer Pliny the Elder.
- US ostrich farming boomed in the early 1990s and then crashed from overproduction; the 2022 farm census counted about 230 US farms raising ostriches for meat, leather, oil, and eggs.
More species to explore
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