Birds · plate 39 of 60
Ostrich
Struthio camelus
Does not bury its head. Will kick you, though.
Only 0.7% of people are Ostriches. (estimated)
If you're an Ostrich
You are big, fast, sociable and not nearly as daft as the rumors suggest. An ostrich is the largest bird alive, runs faster than any other bird and has eyes bigger than its brain, which it uses to spot trouble from a long way off and leave at seventy kilometers an hour; you prefer a group, a wide horizon and a clear exit.
An ostrich's eye is about five centimeters across, the largest of any land animal, and larger than its brain.
The Ostrich as a spirit animal
Matching an Ostrich says you are bigger than the room, faster than people expect and happiest in a group heading somewhere. You are bold, loyal to your flock and not very interested in why; you prefer where. The flaw is a reputation you did not earn and cannot shake, and a tendency to run first and look later. Nobody who has actually met an ostrich thinks it hides its head. You can relate.
Grounded in how the species actually lives; nothing borrowed from anyone's tradition. Why we put it that way.
How to get along with an Ostrich
Do
- Keep it moving; they are built for distance and bored by sitting.
- Go in a group; ostriches graze alongside zebras and antelope and like company that doesn't ask much.
- Point them somewhere. Direction matters more than reasons.
Don't
- Don't repeat the head-in-the-sand thing. They have heard it.
- Don't stand behind them when they're startled. Or in front.
When it goes wrong: An Ostrich under pressure runs, and if cornered kicks; never corner them, open the gate and talk about it once they have stopped.
The Ostrich in a relationship
You love in a flock and mind the children together. Ostrich males court with a swaying wing dance and then take the night shift on the nest while the female takes the day; you are generous, practical and share the work without being asked. You will not write poems about it. You will show up at midnight.
Field notes
Every animal is placed on six personality traits derived from how the species lives. Your answers are placed on the same six, and the closest animal wins. How the scoring works
- Sociability
- 7
- Boldness
- 7
- Energy
- 7
- Curiosity
- 2
- Devotion
- 7
- Roaming
- 7
- Ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand; the story comes from them lowering their heads to turn eggs or to graze.
- The ostrich is the only bird with two toes on each foot, and its forward kick is strong enough to kill a lion.
- Several hens lay in one nest, but the dominant female can tell her own eggs apart and rolls the others to the edge.
Ostriches in literature
- The Ostrich — Just So Stories (The Elephant's Child), Rudyard Kipling (1902)
- The Ostrich — Book of Job, traditional (Hebrew Bible) (500 BCE)
- The Ostrich — Natural History, Pliny the Elder (77)
Characters from public-domain works. Company, not a verdict.
Closest personalities
The animals whose profiles sit nearest to the Ostrich's. If you got Ostrich, one of these was probably your runner-up.
Other birds
EagleOwlRavenHummingbirdPeacockPenguinFlamingoAlbatrossParrotSwanWoodpeckerFalconPigeon
Among the 60
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911). Public domain, viacommons.wikimedia.org.All credits
