The largest living bird
An adult male ostrich stands about 7 to 9 feet tall and weighs about 220 to 300 pounds, and females are a little smaller. Males are black and white, and females and young birds are grayish brown.
The fastest running bird
Ostriches can sprint at about 40 to 43 miles an hour in short bursts, holding their wings out for balance, and one stride can cover 10 to 16 feet. They cannot fly.
Two toes and a powerful kick
The ostrich is the only bird with just two toes on each foot. The inner toe is thick and strong, with a claw about 4 inches long, and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance says a kick from that foot is powerful enough to kill a lion.
The largest egg
An ostrich egg is the largest egg of any living bird, about 6 inches long and around 3 pounds, the weight of about 24 chicken eggs. Several hens may lay in one shared nest, a shallow scrape the male digs, which can hold up to about 60 eggs. The main hen's eggs go in the middle, and she sits on the nest by day while the male takes the night.
The largest eyes on land
An ostrich eye is almost 2 inches across, the largest eye of any land animal, and about as big as its brain.
They do not bury their heads in the sand
That is a myth. An ostrich that is threatened and cannot run flops to the ground and lies still, with its head and neck flat on the ground in front of it.
What ostriches eat
Mostly plants, especially roots, leaves and seeds, plus insects, snakes, lizards and rodents. They swallow sand and pebbles to grind food in the gizzard, and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance says they do not need to drink water, since they get what they need from the plants they eat.
Where ostriches live
Wild ostriches live in Africa, mostly south of the Sahara and in East Africa, in savanna and desert, usually in groups of about 10 birds or as a pair. The common ostrich is listed as Least Concern, though its numbers are falling. The Somali ostrich of Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, now counted as a separate species, is listed as Vulnerable.
In the wild an ostrich lives about 30 to 40 years, the Los Angeles Zoo says. Figures for zoos vary widely, from a median of about 10 years to 50 or more.
Ryu, the ostrich at Kaleidoscope Desert
Ryu is the one ostrich here, and roams the grounds with the emus, its closest relatives on the property, and with the zebra, the mini horses, the goats and the pigs.
Kaleidoscope Desert is a nonprofit art and animal sanctuary on 7.5 acres in Morongo Valley, California, 15 minutes from Joshua Tree and 20 minutes from Palm Springs, where more than 100 animals roam free among the art.
You meet them on the Sanctuary Tour, a guided walk of about 90 minutes that runs daily, with someone who knows every resident by name and their stories. The animals come over on their own terms. Every visit is for adults, 18 and over.
100% of proceeds go to the animals: their rescue, their care, and the sanctuary they live in. Kaleidoscope Desert Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.