It is the largest living bird, some individuals reach 2,4 m in height and 135 kg in weight. They are flightless birds with a flat sternum lacking a keel and adapted to running. For this, they have reduced the number of their fingers to two, to adapt their extremities to running by reducing the contact surface, the inner one, providing the impulse in the wide strides so that they can reach speeds of up to 65 km/h while running.

In addition, it is equipped with a strong, flat claw, a weapon that males use in their spectacular nuptial fights. When an ostrich is threatened, it causes terrible kicks and pecks.

Male ostrichs mate with several females during the breeding season. The males dig holes in the bare ground, where the females lay their eggs in the communal nest, but only one, the one “chosen” by the male, carries out the incubation with her partner taking turns incubating them.

Females lay an egg every two days, and incubation lasts approximately 45 days. The eggs are the largest that exist, equivalent to two dozen chicken eggs and have a strong and resistant shell.

The female with brown feathers blends in with the colors of the savanna, which allows her to incubate her clutch during the day without being easily detected by her predators, and the male, with black and white plumage, blends in more easily at night, due to what incubates during the hours of darkness.