Ostriches fall under the category of ratites which includes large flightless birds such as kiwis, emus, rheas, and ostriches.There are two kinds of ostriches in the world, the Somalia ostrich and the normal ostrich. If we compare the size of an ostrich egg with the size of any other bird egg, it is much larger in comparison.However, an ostrich egg is actually quite small when compared to the size of an adult ostrich. An ostrich is easily recognizable due to its extraordinarily long legs and neck, along with its round-shaped body. It is quite easy to distinguish male ostriches and female ostriches just by looking at them. Male ostriches have black and white feathers which are believed to be used by them to attract females. Female ostriches on the other hand have a light brown feathers which are quite different from the body color of the males.An ostrich is the largest bird in the world, meaning that it also lays the largest eggs in the world for any bird or land animal. On average, an ostrich can be 9 ft (2.7 m) tall and weigh up to 320 lb (145 kg)! The ostrich is the only living bird to have an eye diameter of 2 in (5 cm) which is larger than that of any other land animal. Ostriches are unique in many other ways because they only have two toes on either foot while most other birds have around three to four toes.How big is an ostrich egg?Ostrich eggs are pretty massive both in terms of their size and their weight. Just like the egg, a newborn ostrich is also pretty large compared to other animals. It has been recorded that a newborn ostrich can be the size of an adult chicken! A unique thing about these birds is that they lay eggs in a unique kind of nest known as a communal nest or a dump nest. This nest is very large in size and usually has the capacity to hold up to 60 eggs at a time.In case you haven’t come across an ostrich egg, this type of egg is very large in size. An ostrich egg is much larger than a duck egg or a chicken egg. Generally, an ostrich egg has a diameter of around 6 in (15 cm). Not only is an ostrich egg pretty large in size, it is also quite heavy as one ostrich egg weighs around 3 lb (1.3 kg). Many people say that an ostrich egg is a chicken egg that has been given steroids as the shell of an ostrich egg is much tougher to crack than the shell of a chicken egg. According to research conducted by scientists in the past, an ostrich egg that weighed around 3.35 lb (1522 g) and 6 in (15.5 cm) tall had a width of 5 in (13 cm) along with a circumference of 17.7 in (45 cm). It was discovered that an ostrich egg was much more oval in shape compared to a chicken egg as the former had an index of 81-85%, while the latter had an index of 73-78%. The thickness of ostrich eggs usually lies in the range of 0.05-0.08 in (1.5-2.2 mm).In countries such as South Africa, the United States, Italy, Spain, and China, ostrich farming is very popular because ostriches are reared for their feathers, eggs, and meat. Ostriches that have been domesticated and live on farms lay more eggs than wild ostriches. According to scientists, wild female ostriches begin to lay eggs by the time they are four to five years old, while the female ostriches which live on farms begin to lay eggs from the age of two or two and a half. A farmed female ostrich lays anywhere from 40-130 eggs in a year on average and reaches its peak when it is 7-11 years old. Female ostriches that live in Africa have a higher egg-laying performance than ostriches living in North America or Europe due to the fact that they live in a warm and dry climate in Africa which is ideal for ostriches.How does the size of a rhea bird egg compare to an ostrich egg?An ostrich and a rhea both fall under the category of ratite birds which signifies that these are both flightless birds. Unlike an ostrich, a rhea bird is native to South America and there are two different species, the greater rhea (Rhea Americana) and the lesser rhea (Rhea pennata). This bird is quite large, but not as large as the ostrich, with a weight of around 88 lb (40 kg). However, how does a rhea egg compare to an ostrich egg?Rhea birds produce some of the largest eggs in the world but they are not as large as ostrich eggs. Roughly, a rhea bird egg is double the size of a chicken egg but it is only half the size of an ostrich egg. An average rhea egg is 5 in (13 cm) long and has a height of 3.5 in (9 cm). When it comes to the weight of these eggs, rhea eggs have an average weight of around 21 oz (600 g), almost half the weight of ostrich eggs but around 10 times the weight of chicken eggs. Other than size, rhea eggs are also quite different from ostrich eggs in terms of color and texture. Rhea eggs are greenish-yellow in colorat the beginning but this color eventually changes to a dull creamy white color as the eggs develop. However, ostrich eggs are shiny creamy white color from the very beginning. An interesting fact about these birds is that it is very easy to visually distinguish between a male and a female ostrich due to the difference in their body color. Male and female ostriches have different colored feathers, making it easy to spot the difference. However male and female rhea birds have the same body color, making it pretty difficult to distinguish between the two sexes. People are often curious if there is a bird that produces larger eggs than an ostrich. Currently, ostriches lay the largest eggs in the world, however this has not always been the case. Researchers have found that the eggs of some creatures that lived millions of years ago were larger. For example, elephant birds laid eggs that were much larger than ostrich eggs.Can a human being stand on an ostrich egg?Ostrich eggs are the strongest eggs in the world. The shell of these eggs is only 0.078 in (2 mm) thick and while this might not seem a lot, the shell is much thicker than other eggs. Male ostriches, as well as female ostriches, take turns incubating the eggs laid by the females depending on the time of the day.During the night, it is the males who stand over the eggs as they are is black in color and their feathers help them to camouflage at night. On the other hand, females incubate the eggs during the day they are gray-brown in color and this helps them camouflage during the day. Both the males and the females sit on the eggs for around 42-46 days before the eggs hatch. When the males and the females incubate the eggs, they stand over the eggs. The average ostrich has a bodyweight of around 320 lb (145 kg) but even then the eggs do not break or hatch at the wrong time, speaking leaps and bounds about the strength of these eggs.According to scientists, ostrich eggs can take a weight of up to 485 lb (220 kg) when kept vertically and when they are kept horizontally, they can take a load of up to 265 lb (120 kg). Under ideal conditions, there is no chance that an ostrich egg will break if an adult human being stands on it. People cannot break ostrich eggs the way they break chicken eggs. If you attempt to break these eggs by hitting them with a spoon or on the side of a bowl or by hitting them on the ground, chances are that an ostrich egg won’t break. Power tools, hammers, and chisels have proven to be the most effective methods of breaking the eggs of this animal. Ostrich eggs are edible and can be consumed as food. Ostrich eggs have higher amounts of iron and magnesium in them but lower amounts of vitamin A and vitamin E compared to chicken eggs. If you eat an ostrich egg in the morning, you will be consuming 2,000 calories and there is a high chance you won’t feel the need to eat any other food the rest of the day.Is the ostrich egg the largest cell?The ostrich is famous for being the largest bird in the world and for also laying the largest eggs. An ostrich’s egg is a single-celled body. Scientific studies have proven that ostrich eggs are single-celled structures and since ostrich eggs are the largest eggs in the world, it can be concluded that ostrich eggs are also the largest cells in the world.The largest ostrich egg ever recorded was back in 2008 when an ostrich laid a 5.7 lb (2.6 kg) egg in Sweden. In the family of ostriches, the males and females have a unique arrangement wherein an ostrich herd usually consists of 12 ostriches. There is a dominant male ostrich and a dominant female ostrich. The dominant female ostrich mates only with the dominant male although the dominant male ostrich of the herd mates with the other female ostriches in the group. All these other ostriches are known as hens and all of them lay their eggs in the nest of the dominant female. In this nest, the egg of the dominant female ostrich sits in the middle because this is considered to be the safest spot. She also takes care of all the eggs in the nest along with the male ostrich who mated with her. It does not matter if an ostrich lives in the wild or in captivity, an ostrich will not lay eggs throughout the year like chickens. An ostrich has a specific breeding period when it lays eggs every other day. It lays both fertilized, as well as unfertilized eggs and we use the latter as food or for other purposes. Typically, ostriches lay unfertilized eggs every other day during their breeding season.We now know about the largest eggs in the world but do you know which bird lays the smallest eggs in the world? The vervain hummingbird is known for laying the smallest eggs in the world that measure around 0.39 in (10 mm) in length and only weigh 0.012 oz (0.36 g) on average.
Ostriches fall under the category of ratites which includes large flightless birds such as kiwis, emus, rheas, and ostriches.
