The Largest Bird ostrich

                     

The ostrich is the largest of all birds today. It may be 8 feet tall and weigh more than 300 pounds.


The ostrich is the largest of all the birds today. A full-grown male ostrich may be 8 feet tall and weigh more than 300 pounds. Ostriches live on the plains and desets of Africa.


Like all birds, ostriches have feathers and wings. But their great size and small wings make it impossible for them to fly.


They are fast runners, and can easily outrun most enemies, which are mainly lions. Ostriches can also protect themselves by kicking with their powerful legs.


This big bird lays the largest egg of any living bird. An ostrich egg can measure seven inches long and weigh 3 pounds – as a two-dozen chicken eggs.


Newborn chicks are about a foot tall. When a young ostrich is a month old, it can run as fast as an adult. Ostriches usually eat plants. But they will also gulp down lizards and insects when they fin d them.


They swallow sand and pebbles to aid in digestion. Ostriches make loud hissing sounds.


The largest bird in the world is the ostrich, a flightless bird that weighs up to 160 kg and stands almost 3 m. high. Although the ostrich is native to Africa, ostriches are farmed around the world including countries as far north as Finland. An ostrich egg weighs approximately 1.4 pounds, the largest of any bird egg in the world. After hatching, it can live up to 70 years, but its average life span is 50 years.


They are listed with the IUCN as being of Least Concern, but were at one time almost hunted to extinction in the 1800′s for their leather and feathers (which were used to make fashionable ladies hats and feather dusters). Ostrich leather is known to be very strong, and the meat is said to taste like beef. In some parts of the world, ostriches are ridden in races, but due to their less than genial demeanor and human rights concerns, this practice isn’t wide spread.