The story of an Ostrich "dance"

I will continue on with my description of the days that we were in Africa but I had to pause for a post with a story. This is the story of Ostriches "dancing". Now this is a family friendly blog so I will just mention that the word "dancing" is in quotes for a reason. You get me? 

Some interesting facts about the Ostrich. The male is fancy. Black with white feathers that fan out. When he is ready to "dance" his legs and neck get really really pink. 

When they are finished "dancing" they run. Run wildly either in the same direction of the opposite direction as fast as they can. The running helps um reinforce the results of the "dancing". 

We just got "lucky"

 (pardon the pun - sorry couldn't help myself)

 and got to watch the whole entire thing. Our safari guide was very nice and discussed the "dancing" in a very family friendly manner which I greatly appreciated. 

Here we are - ready to dance. 

Beginning the dance

One of my very favorite pictures of the entire trip. Dance in progress. Look at the look on her face and the look on his face behind her. Makes me chortle every time. (Yes I said chortle - totally what I do. Maybe snicker. Yeah could be classified as a snicker.)
Anyhoo...

Now here is a picture of the female because a really interesting thing about these guys is that she is brown because she sits on the eggs during the day. (She how she matches her environment around her?) The male sits on the eggs at night because he is black. 

Also - the male will have several females that he dances with and they live in a sort of communal harmony with many female eggs in one next. Once they eggs hatch the male takes on the primary role for caring for them because they are all his and only some are hers. Very sister wivesy.