Ostrich watercolor drawing by Bianca Wisseloo

A watercolor drawing of a jaunty funny ostrich. Fineliners were also used for the details. It is a portrait of his head and you can see his neck and a small part of his body. The bird looks right at you from the front and his beak seems to be smiling at the viewer. He has beautiful large brown/amber eyes with some kind of eyelashes. This bird is truly a picture.

The body is covered in feathers (not downy feathers). The male's plumage is mostly black, but has white wing tips. The tail is generally white to gray, but one subspecies has a cinnamon brown tail. The head, neck and legs are mostly unfeathered and gray to blue in color. The female and immature are primarily gray-brown, including on the lightly feathered head, neck and legs. The wing tips of females are dirty white in color.

During the reproductive period, the neck and legs of the male turn color. Populations in East and West Africa turn orange-pink, while in Southern Africa the shins turn red. The male of one subspecies, the Somali ostrich, has a blue neck and legs and a red stripe across the shins.

The ostrich is the fastest bird on the ground and the fastest land animal on two legs. The ostrich can maintain a speed of 50 kilometers per hour over a thirty-minute period. In a short sprint it can even reach speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour, making strides of 3.5 meters. This speed is possible because he can store energy very efficiently in his tendons. The reused energy from tendons is 83% more than in humans.