Common Ostrich - Struthio camelus

Common Ostrich

Struthio camelus

Order : Struthioniformes

Family : Struthionidae ;

1 autre fiche de cette famille.
French version
Common Ostrich

Biometrics :

Size : cm
Wingspan :
Weight : 90 000 gr à 180 000 gr

Longevity : 40 years

IUCN conservation status :

Extinct

Threatened

Least
concern

Extinc
in the Wild

Near
threatened

Not
evaluated

EX EW CR EN VU NT LC NE

Geographic range :

Synonyms : Avestruz (es), Struzzo (it), Strauß (al), Struisvogel (nl), Common Ostrich (en)

Physical description :
Common Ostrich is a large bird which doesn't fly. It is the largest bird living in the World.
Male has black glossy plumage, with supple feathers on back. Primary and tail are white, making it easily visible.
Female and young have brownish feathers instead of black, allowing them better camouflage.
Male and female have bare neck, as the legs. Skin is blue or pink in male and pinkish grey in female. They have a long and moving neck, a small flat head, large eyes with long black lashes, powerful whitish legs with two toes. Flesh colour bill is wide.

Voice : Common Ostrich is often silent. But it has a call's repertory including whistles, growls and booming. These calls are uttered by males and are very ringing and heard at long distance 'boo-boo-booh-hoo'

Habitat : Common Ostrich lives in the driest zones of Africa, in savannahs. We find it in western, eastern and South Africa.

Behaviour : Sometimes, in order to be better camouflaged, Common Ostrich lies down on the ground, extending its neck in the extreme. This particular behaviour is maybe at the origin of the rumour saying that the ostrich hides its head into the sand, from where the expression 'to make the ostrich' when one wants to be unaware of outside...
While feeding, Common Ostrich frequently raises the head in order to watch over the surroundings. Not having teeth, it swallows pebbles which help it to crush food in its sinewy stomach.
Common Ostrich is not very gregarious and lives alone or in groups of 5 to 50 individuals and we usually find it with antelopes and zebras. Each group occupies a territory from 2 to 15 squared km during the breeding period which lasts approximately 5 months. Its powerful legs are its only defence against its natural enemies. If threatened, it can give vigorous blows. It has keen view and hearing, which make it able to detect a predator, even at some distance.
It practises the dust bath, like the other birds, but it likes water and bathes each time that it gets a chance to do it. It can survive for long periods without drinking. It can also resist to a loss of 25% of its weight by dehydration. It satisfies itself with the moisture included in the plants which it consumes.
Its feathers are used as insulator against the sun, but also to provide shade to the chicks.
They are also useful for the courtship displays, during which the male flutters them in
order to display its white feathers. Male can have from 2 to 6 females. It utters
whistles and various sounds to threaten the others males. Once divided into breeding groups, Common Ostriches use community nests being able to receive from 15 to 60 eggs.

Flight : With its powerful legs and toes, Common Ostrich runs quickly in open areas, thus compensating its incapacity to fly. It walks at 4 km per h, it displays at 30 km per h and flees frightened at 70 km per h.

Reproduction-nesting : Common Ostrich breeds during the dry season. Male prepares several depressions in the ground, by scraping sand on its territory. It chooses the nest-site
and several females copulate with it.
Each female lays 2 to 11 cream-coloured eggs, weighing more than one kg each one, in the community nest. But only dominant male and female guard the nest.
Incubation lasts approximately 6 weeks. Dominant female sits on the nest during the hotter hours of the day, male replacing her at night.
In spite of the constant survey of parents, less than 10% of the eggs will give birth to chicks. They weigh approximately 1 kg at hatching. They are rusty coloured with dark brown spots and a 'shawl' of fluffed down on back. They leave the nest a few times after hatching. They reach the adult size at one year and half, and their sexual maturity at the 2 to 4 years of age.

Food habits : Common Ostrich is mainly herbivorous, and feeds on buds, leaves, flowers and seeds. It may sometimes catch lizards; it can also occasionally eat remains of dead animals abandoned by carnivorous predators. It consumes also grasshoppers. In captivity, an ostrich needs 3,5 kg of food per day, and it can have a lifespan of more than 50 years.

Protection / threats : During many years, Common Ostrich was killed for its feathers, used as ornaments. The farms of ostriches being more widespread, they allow this species to survive in free populations, the captive birds providing the various human needs.
Numbers and distribution areas of this species decreased in dramatic way during the 100 last years, caused by hunting and habitat destruction. Today, it survives in protected areas in Africa.
Chicks have some predatory, such as the Egyptian Vulture, the hyena and the jackal. Only 15% of the young reach their first year, in spite of the close protection by both parents.

Other links :
Iucn
Birdlife

Specification sheet created by Nicole Bouglouan

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