Characteristics of ostriches that distinguish them from other birds

Characteristics and recipes of ostriches.

The ostrich is a unique bird by nature, does not fly, does not have a keel, and has only two toes on its legs, which is also an exception in the category of birds.
Being the largest birds on the planet, African ostriches can boast a length of 2.7 meters and an impressive weight of up to 156 kg. However, the usual average weight of ostriches is about 50 kg, and the males are somewhat larger than females.
The structure of the ostrich is not pneumatic, with the exception of the femur, the ends of the pubic bones have grown and formed a closed pelvis, which is also uncharacteristic for other birds.
The ostrich is distinguished by a dense addition, a very elongated neck, a small flathead, and ends with a smooth, wide, and flat beak, on which there is soft horny tissue.
The ostrich has large eyes, and the upper eyelid is called long and thin eyelashes.
Ease of mowing, or keel, characteristic of representatives of the ostriches, is completely absent in ostriches, and the breast itself is poorly developed.
On its surface, there is a bare area of thick skin that serves as a support when the bird falls to the ground
The forelimbs of birds are represented by underdeveloped wings, each of which is located with two fingers ending with sharp claws.
The back legs of the ostrich are long, strong, and muscular, with two fingers, and only one of them has a peculiar hoof that serves as a support during running.
Ostrich is fluffy and curly, relatively uniformly distributed over the surface of the body, on the head, neck, and legs of the feathers are not: they are covered with short, soft down.
Birds have very beautiful plumage and there are a lot of them: 16 weaving feathers of the first order and from 20 to 23 of the second order, the guide feathers can range from 50 to 60.
It is very easy to distinguish a male ostrich from a female, the plumage of an adult male is black, and only the tail and wings are painted white.
Female ostriches are distinguished by their greyish-brown plumage, and the wings and tail feathers look dirty white.

types of ostriches

Common or North African ostrich (Struthio Camelus Camelus.)

This is the largest subspecies, its growth reaches 2.74 meters, while the weight of the ostrich reaches 156 kg. The limbs and neck of the ostrich are painted in intense red color, and the eggshell is covered with thin rays that form a star similar in pattern. Earlier ordinary ostriches lived in a wide area covering north and west of the African continent, from Ethiopia and Uganda in the south of the range to Algeria and Egypt in the north, and it covers West African countries, including Mauritania and Senegal.
In real days, the area of u200bu200bthe habitat of these birds has significantly decreased, and now ordinary ostriches live only in many countries of Africa such as Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, and Senegal.

Masai ostrich (Struthio Camelus Massaicus.)

This type of ostrich is found in East Africa (southern Kenya, eastern Tanzania, Ethiopia, southern Somalia), its neck and limbs in the breeding season are painted in an intense red color and outside the breeding season, they have a pink color.

Somali Ostrich (Struthio Camelus Molybdophanes

In this species, the males have the same shoulders on the head, as well as representatives of the subspecies of ordinary ostriches, but their neck and limbs are distinguished by bluish-grey skin, and female Somali ostriches have especially light brown plumage.

Somali ostriches live in southern Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya, and Somalia, and the locals call them the beautiful “hurao”, this subspecies prefers to live in pairs either single.

Southern ostrich (Struthio Camelus Australis)

They are distinguished by the grey color of the neck and limbs, their area goes through the southwestern part of Africa, and the ostrich meets in Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Botswana, and they inhabit the south of the Zambezi and Kunene rivers.

How many ostrich eggs?

In ostriches that live in the northern part of the range, as a rule, they lay 15-20 eggs, in the south about 30 eggs, in East Africans, the number of eggs in a nest often reaches 50-60 eggs

And the ostrich has the largest eggs, although they are quite small in relation to the body, on average, the size of an ostrich egg varies from 15 to 21 cm, and its width is about 13 cm.

The weight of an egg reaches 1.5-2 kg, which is equivalent to 25-35 chickens. The thickness of the shell is about 0.6 mm, its color is straw-yellow, sometimes darker, or, on the contrary, lighter.

The eggs are demolished by different females, the texture of the shell varies and they are shiny and shiny or matte and porous.

Information about ostriches for children

Ostrich feathers are especially beautiful and are traditionally used in the manufacture of fans, puffs, and jewelry in windmills, the popularity of the ostrich pen led to the fact that if only a ton of raw materials were exported from Africa in the nineteenth century a year, then at the beginning of the twentieth century this indicator was already 370 tons.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, birds began to be contained in farms, and if this did not happen, then the ostrich population could not live to this day, today more than 50 states have breeding farms on farms, including countries with cold climatic conditions, in particular In addition to maintaining shape, the main purpose of ostrich farming is to obtain expensive skin and feathers and tasty beef-like meat.
The feathers of ostriches that have reached 2-3 years of age are not pulled out, they are carefully cut from the skin itself, repeating the procedure twice a year.
Ostrich has long been used by a person as a means of locomotion: birds were harnessed in the belt and also rode on them.
An interesting feature of ostriches is completely swallowing inedible things. In the stomach of one ostrich, a number of interesting items were found: 3.5 kg of sand, rags, 9 coins, a copper hinge, two iron keys, and even lead holes.
An ostrich can ride, and a bird can easily carry an adult.
Ostrich is a bird belonging to the African ostrich family, these birds live only on the plains and do not rise above 100 meters above sea level.
The ostrich weighs from 65 to 145 kg, the growth of its feathers is 2.1-2.8 meters.
The ostrich has a long neck, a small head, and large eyes, and the mouth is also large and extends to the eyes.
An ostrich can run at a speed of 75 kilometers per hour, at the same time, the length of their steps varies from 3 to 5 meters.
The plumage consists of soft and fluffy feathers that have high thermal insulation properties, thanks to this they perfectly adapt to large temperature fluctuations, on the tail in ostriches 60 feathers, and on the wings 16 primary and 25 secondary feathers.