05/11/2012
Frantic feathered frenzy
I watched as the male ostrich stood proudly with his attractive black feathers and red neck , he was making every effort to attract the females , by making vocal noises and running after them , then doing a dazzling dance with a frantic looking feathered frenzy to try and attract a female , eventually a female does oblige and the male couples with her . Yes ! it is ostrich mating season at the moment , hopefully there will be plenty of chicks hatching in the near future .
They are interesting birds to watch , firstly they are the largest birds in the World , and they cannot fly due to size & weight . However to compensate for the inability to fly , ostrich can run quite fast and if threatened will turn sharply and twist at full speed . The males look majestic with their black feathers and white undercarriage , while the females are a drab grey , just imagine if women in our world all looked drab , and did not care for fashion ? They also regularly swallow stones to help the digestion process , it’s no wonder they can’t fly with that extra weight ! The species in the Nairobi park are the southern sub-species with pink/reddish legs , Kenya is also one of the few places where the rarer northern (Somali ostrich) sub-species with its blue legs is also found.
I always enjoy the time of year in the park when the chicks hatch as it is quite a sight to see over twenty small fluffballs following the adults . Unfortunately the chick mortality is high due to predation , however a healthy population of about 200 ostrich live in the Nairobi park .
