Do Ostriches Bury Their Heads In the Sand?

“Burry your head in the sand” is a well-known idiom that means to ignore one’s problems. If you bury your head in the sand, you can’t see your problems — but that doesn’t mean they’ll go away!

This idiom is largely attributed to the ostrich, which is said to bury its head in the sand when predators are nearby, “If I can’t see them, they can’t see me!” So, do ostriches really bury their heads in the sand? ?

Contrary to popular belief, ostriches don’t bury their heads in the sand thanks to an idiom. In fact, this is a myth. Ostriches can be very aggressive birds when it comes to defense, and they aren’t afraid to show off.

Ostriches can be unusually tall, exceeding 2.8 meters (9 ft) and very heavy, with the largest male, the common ostrich, weighing up to 150 kg (330 lb). They also have very powerful legs, with big toes measuring about 15 cm (6 inches long).

An ostrich kick can kill a large animal such as a lion or a human. While lions and other African land predators do attack young ostriches, it’s by no means a one-sided struggle. Ostriches are fierce and territorial and have been known to attack and kill lions they find stealing their eggs.

Does this sound like animals burying their heads in the sand when they are in danger?

Read on to discover where this famous idiom comes from!

It’s a pure myth that ostriches never bury their heads in the sand

Where do myths come from?

Historians trace the myth’s origins to the Roman writer, philosopher, and naturalist Pliny the Elder from AD 23 to AD 79.

Pliny wrote many books to help historians document the Roman Empire and its conquests, but one of his most influential works is natural history Translated as “natural history”.

This vast body of work covers many topics in zoology as well as various other topics. For example, in Book X (Book 10), Pliny writes about ostriches; “…when they thrust their heads and necks into the bushes, they imagined that their whole bodies were concealed” . As we’ve seen, Pliny didn’t directly accuse the ostrich of burying its head in the sand, so the modern idiom may have emerged at some point.

Pliny spent some time in a Roman colony in Africa, so he almost certainly saw an ostrich himself.

To his credit, he wasn’t too wrong in his observations. While ostriches don’t bury their heads in the sand, they sometimes sit on the ground and stick their necks out when they feel threatened, possibly to appear low-key and blend in with the surrounding foliage. This may have been the act that inspired Pliny to write.

Ostriches are large, powerful birds that can reach speeds of over 40 miles per hour

When did the ostrich bury its head in the sand?

Instead of burying their heads in the sand, ostriches engage in behaviors that make them look like one. These include feeding and nesting seasons.

Ostriches, for example, often lean over to feed and extend their long necks toward the ground. From a distance, it looks like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand.

But it is most likely to be mistaken for the behavior of ostriches building and maintaining nests.

Ostriches build rudimentary nests, which are essentially just cavities scraped in the dirt. Males build their nests by scraping the ground with their claws, but can also fine-tune and inspect the nest by extending their necks.

Then, once the eggs are laid, the ostriches periodically enter the nest to turn the eggs over. This ensures that hatching is uniform. The ground is cold at night and the eggs must be heated evenly.

This may give the impression that the ostrich is reaching into a cavity in the ground, or burying its head in the ground.

From a distance, ostriches foraging and eating on the ground sometimes appear as if they are burying their heads in the ground

What does it mean when an ostrich buries its head in the sand?

One of the reasons the term has become popular is because it’s a good way to describe human behavior, not ostrich behavior. Burying your head in the sand means ignoring your problems. The term means avoiding a problem or confronting or postponing something etc.

This is typical human behavior that most people can understand. Humans, for example, often accuse each other of burying their heads in the sand on climate change—we just tell ourselves the issue doesn’t affect us, even when the danger is imminent.

In psychology, this is known as the “ostrich effect”, related to other concepts and idioms such as “ignorance is bliss”.

Female ostriches roaming in Yotvata Nature Reserve

What do ostriches do when they are scared?

If an ostrich is really scared, it will likely run, but it may also lie on the ground to minimize its shape and form.This is probably what Pliny observed when writing about ostriches natural history.

Ostriches are large, strong and territorial, but also very fast. In fact, ostriches can maintain speeds of 30 to 37 mph for extended periods of time — up to 30 minutes or so — and sprint at speeds of up to 43 mph.

While ostriches cannot easily outpace lions in a sprint trip, they have an endurance advantage and will start to pull away after 100 meters or so. Cheetahs are the only African land carnivore capable of going all out to catch ostriches, but ostriches are much larger than cheetahs and are a poor prey choice. Ostriches can easily injure, injure or kill a cheetah.

But there’s another interesting fact about ostriches: They have the largest eyes of any land animal, measuring 5 centimeters (2.2 inches) in diameter—bigger than an elephant’s. As a result, they can spot small predators from a distance of about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) or 50 meters or more in the dead of night. Coupled with their long necks, ostriches are often able to spot predators before they spot them.

Ostriches are formidable opponents for a number of reasons and don’t quit a fight easily. In fact, it is extremely unwise to approach wild ostriches, and human fatalities are not unheard of.

Close-up portrait of the North African Ostrich or Red-necked Ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus), also known as the Barbary Ostrich

Do any birds bury their heads in the sand?

We mostly associate birds with the sky or trees, but many birds live underground such as burrowing owls, swallows, some thrushes, Magellanic penguins, kingfishers, some woodpeckers and many seabirds.

However, no bird species seem to bury themselves when in danger. After all, any bird that can fly is better than just flying away. While some ground-dwelling birds may retreat to their burrows when threatened, none bury their heads in the sand.