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An ostrich is a bird, but a very special bird. It is the largest flightless bird in the world and also lays the largest eggs of all birds. An ostrich is an ancient creature having existed for thousands of years. Some say it's a living dinosaur.
It belongs to a family of birds known as Ratites which include the emu, rhea, cassowary, kiwi and now extinct moa. Ratite is the Greek word for keel and given to this family of birds which have a breast bone shaped like the keel of a boat. Being flightless this bone does not have muscles attached to it. Instead it is used like an armour plate for protection.
The ostrich has some other interesting features
- It is a bird that stands 2 metres tall when fully grown, the largest bird known to exist today.
- It can grow very rapidly, so fast, that in one year it can grow 100 times bigger than when it hatched
- While it has large wings it can not fly.
- Instead it has the ability to run at 60-70kph.
- Ostrich have a life expectancy of 70 -80 year.
- They can continue to reproduce for 20-30 years.
- The male raises and protects the young chicks. At night he shelters the young under his large wings and during the day ‥the young stay in close proximity to the male for protection.
- The male has black feathers and the female grey/brown feathers.
- The female (hen) sits on the eggs during the day and the males (rooster) sits on them at night.
- The ostrich has the largest eye of any land animal
- It has two toes on each foot. The longer toe has a claw the other is a soft toe with no claw.
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