Female Ostrich

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania - The Ostrich (Struthio camelus) is a flightless bird native to Africa. It is the largest living species of bird and can run at speeds of about 65 km/h (40 mph), the top land speed of any bird.

In popular mythology, the Ostrich is famous for burying its head in the sand at the first sign of danger. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder is noted for his descriptions of the ostrich in his Naturalis Historia, where he describes the Ostrich and the fact that it hides its head in a bush.There have been no recorded observations of this behavior. A common counter-argument is that a species that displayed this behavior would not survive very long. Ostriches do deliberately swallow sand and pebbles to help grind up their food; seeing this from a distance may have caused some early observers to believe that their heads were buried in sand. Also, ostriches that are threatened but unable to run away may fall to the ground and stretch out their necks in an attempt to become less visible. The coloring of an ostrich's neck is similar to sand and could give the illusion that the neck and head have been completely buried.

The most unique behaviour occurs when a pair of ostrich bearing young meets another pair. The parents will fight and the winning pairs will be parents of both pairs' offspring. It has been reported that the biggest group of ostriches contains 300 offspring.