Ostrich

The ostrich is a large flightless bird of the genus Struthio, the heaviest and largest living bird, with two living species: the common ostrich, native to Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich of the Horn of Africa. Adult common ostriches weigh between 63.5 and 145 kilograms, lay the largest eggs of any living land animal, and can run at 70 kilometers per hour, the fastest of any bird on land; they belong to the order Struthioniformes within the ratites, the flightless and weakly flying birds that also include emus, rheas, kiwis and the extinct elephant birds. Humans have used ostrich eggs and meat for millennia, and the bird is now farmed commercially worldwide for meat, leather, feathers, eggs and fat-derived oil, with South Africa producing about 70 percent of ostrich products, centered on the town of Oudtshoorn.