Common Ostrich
Struthio camelus
Ostriches (Struthionidae) · Struthioniformes (Struthioniformes)
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Often mixed up with
In quizzes, players most often confuse Common Ostrich with these birds— either this species was picked by mistake, or the other way around.
| Species | Mix-ups |
|---|---|
| Slaty-backed Thrush Geokichla schistacea | 1 |
Family
Struthionidae (; from Latin strūthiō 'ostrich' and Ancient Greek εἶδος (eîdos) 'appearance, resemblance') is a family of flightless birds, containing the extant ostriches and their extinct relatives. The two extant species of ostrich are the common ostrich and Somali ostrich, both in the genus Struthio, which also contains several species known from Holocene fossils such as the Asian ostrich. The common ostrich is the more widespread of the two living species, and is the largest living bird species.
Order
Struthioniformes is an order of birds with a single extant family, Struthionidae, containing the ostriches. Several other extinct families are known, spanning across the Northern Hemisphere, from the Early Eocene to the early Pliocene, including a variety of flightless forms like the Palaeotididae, Geranoididae, Eogruidae and Ergilornithidae, the latter two thought to be closely related to Struthionidae.