People say that ostriches hide their heads in the sand when they are afraid. This is not true. If they did, they could not breathe!

Ostriches make nests in holes in the ground. They often put their heads down to turn their eggs. From far away, it looks like their heads are in the sand. Also, ostriches can run very fast, so they usually run away from danger.

The English phrase "bury your head in the sand" means to ignore a problem. It comes from the idea that frightened ostriches hide their heads in the sand. In reality, ostriches never do this, since they would not be able to breathe. One likely source of the myth is how ostriches care for their eggs. They dig shallow nests in the ground and turn their huge eggs with their beaks several times a day.

From a distance, a bird with its head inside the nest looks as if its head is buried. Another source is a defensive behavior. When an ostrich is unable to escape, it lies down and presses its long neck flat on the ground, so only its body can be seen.

The expression "to bury one's head in the sand" rests on a belief that ostriches, when threatened, plunge their heads into the ground and imagine themselves hidden. The idea is ancient; the Roman naturalist Pliny is said to have described ostriches that thought their whole bodies were concealed once their heads were in a bush.

But no field study is known to have recorded such behavior, and an animal that suffocated itself would hardly survive on the savanna. Ostriches, the largest living birds, rely instead on speed, reportedly exceeding 60 kilometers per hour, and on powerful kicks. Two real behaviors probably gave rise to the myth. The zoologist Brian Bertram, who observed wild ostriches in Kenya for a long period, described a communal nesting system in which several females lay eggs in a single scrape on the ground, while a male and one female take turns incubating them.

To turn the enormous eggs, the birds repeatedly lower their heads into the nest. In addition, an ostrich that cannot flee may lie down and stretch its neck flat along the ground, where its coloring blends with the soil. Seen from far away, both postures look as though the head has vanished.