Myth 6 of 10
6. Myth: the ostrich buries its head in the sand
Ostriches do not hide their heads in the sand, not even when they are scared. If they did, they would not be able to breathe. The image comes from behaviors that deceive from a distance.
Where the idea came from
The ostrich makes its nest in a shallow hole dug in the ground. Several times a day, it lowers its head into the hole to turn the eggs with its beak. From afar, it looks as if the head has vanished into the earth.
When it feels threatened and cannot escape, the ostrich may lie on the ground and stretch its neck flat against the soil. Since the head and neck are a color similar to the ground, it almost disappears into the landscape.
But the most common reaction to danger is to run. The ostrich is the fastest bird on land and can reach about 70 kilometers per hour. When cornered, it also defends itself with powerful kicks, capable of seriously injuring a predator.
The idea of the ostrich hiding its head is very old and already appears in texts by Roman authors. Today it survives mainly as an expression, used to describe someone who prefers not to face a problem.
The eggs are incubated in shifts: the female, with brown feathers, usually looks after the nest during the day, and the male, with black feathers, at night. The colors help each one go unnoticed during its shift.
Did you know? The ostrich is the largest bird in the world and lays the largest egg among living birds. An ostrich egg can weigh about 1.5 kilograms, the equivalent of roughly two dozen chicken eggs.
