Birds
Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes)
The Somali ostrich or blue-necked ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes) is one of the two living ostrich species, recognised as separate from the common ostrich in 2014. It lives across most of Somalia and nearby Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. Somalis long kept tamed ostriches for meat, eggs and feathers. The IUCN Red List lists it as Vulnerable.
In short
The Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes), also called the blue-necked ostrich, is a large flightless bird of the Horn of Africa (Redman, Stevenson and Fanshawe, Birds of the Horn of Africa). It is one of only two living species of ostrich; the other is the common ostrich. It was long treated as a subspecies of the common ostrich and was recognised as a separate species in 2014 (IUCN Red List, Struthio molybdophanes, 2022). GBIF records the Somali name Goronyo soomaaliyeed (GBIF).
How it was described
Anton Reichenow described it in a Berlin newspaper supplement on 16 September 1883. He gave its range as the plains of Somali country and western Oromo ("Galla") land, from 10 degrees north to the Equator (Reichenow, "Immer Neues aus Afrika", 1883, Biodiversity Heritage Library).
A study of mitochondrial DNA found it to be the most distinct of all ostriches, splitting from their common ancestor some 3.6 to 4.1 million years ago. The East African Rift appears to have kept it apart from the North African ostrich (Freitag and Robinson, The Auk, 1993). It has no subspecies (Birds of the World, Somali Ostrich).
What it looks like and how it lives
The skin of its neck and thighs is blue-grey, not pink, and turns brighter blue on males in the mating season. Its neck has no broad white ring. Males have white wing and tail feathers; females have brown ones (Wikipedia, Somali ostrich, backup).
It lives mostly in northeastern Ethiopia, southern Djibouti, most of Kenya and across most of Somalia. Where it overlaps with the common ostrich, it keeps to bushier, thicker country and feeds mostly by browsing, while the common ostrich grazes open savanna (same source; Freitag and Robinson, 1993).
Ostriches in Somali life
Somalis partly domesticated ostriches for a long time. The Italian explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti pictured tamed ostriches at a Somali village at Bio Caboba in 1888 (Robecchi Bricchetti, Nell'Harrar, Internet Archive). People ate the meat and used the eggs as ornaments (BirdLife International, Somali Ostrich). Herders sold the feathers of tamed ostriches at coastal markets (James, The Unknown Horn of Africa, 1888).
The ostrich appears in Somali poetry. The early 20th-century poet Qamaan Bulxan wrote: "Baal-goray waa lagu ogaa, inuu bildhaamaaye!" ("It is known that the ostrich's feather shines!") (Qamaan Bulxan, Taariikh iyo maanso, Roma Tre University).
Numbers
A 2006 report on wildlife trade in Somalia states that the Somali ostrich was common in central and southern Somalia in the 1970s and 1980s. After the collapse of the state and with no working wildlife protection, its range and numbers shrank through uncontrolled hunting for meat, medicine and eggs (Wildlife Trade in Somalia, 2006). In Kenya it is farmed for meat, feathers and eggs (Wikipedia, Somali ostrich, backup).
Records in Somali lands
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) holds 5 records of the Somali ostrich from Somalia, dated from 1994 to 2025 (GBIF occurrence search, Somalia). By type: 5 sightings by people.
Records that name a region (5 of 5), by region: Awdal 1, Galgaduud 1, Gedo 1, Middle Juba 1, Togdheer 1 (same source).
The oldest dated record is a sighting by a person from 1994, from Middle Juba, held by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (eBird) (GBIF record 1755929187).
The newest dated record is a sighting by a person from 2025, from Galgaduud (GBIF record 5276877131).
GBIF only holds what museums, scientists and observers have shared, so the counts show where the animal or plant has been recorded, not its full range.
Red List status
The IUCN Red List category for the Somali ostrich is Vulnerable (IUCN Red List assessment; GBIF species page).
Classification
| Rank | Name |
|---|---|
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Struthioniformes |
| Family | Struthionidae |
| Genus | Struthio |
| Species | Struthio molybdophanes |
Scientific name with author: Struthio molybdophanes Reichenow, 1883 (GBIF Backbone Taxonomy).
Related pages
Sources
Sources
- Redman, Stevenson and Fanshawe, Birds of the Horn of Africa · books.google.com
- IUCN Red List, Struthio molybdophanes, 2022 · doi.org
- GBIF · gbif.org
- Reichenow, "Immer Neues aus Afrika", 1883, Biodiversity Heritage Library · biodiversitylibrary.org
- Freitag and Robinson, The Auk, 1993 · sora.unm.edu
- Birds of the World, Somali Ostrich · birdsoftheworld.org
- Wikipedia, Somali ostrich, backup · en.wikipedia.org
- Robecchi Bricchetti, Nell'Harrar, Internet Archive · archive.org
- BirdLife International, Somali Ostrich · datazone.birdlife.org
- James, The Unknown Horn of Africa, 1888 · archive.org
- Qamaan Bulxan, Taariikh iyo maanso, Roma Tre University · arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it
- Wildlife Trade in Somalia, 2006 · wmenews.com
- GBIF occurrence search, Somalia · gbif.org
- GBIF record 1755929187 · gbif.org
- GBIF record 5276877131 · gbif.org
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Where this matters
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Keep reading
- Juba weaver (Ploceus dichrocephalus)The Juba weaver or Salvadori's weaver: name, range in the Horn of Africa, Red List status, and its 27 shared records in Somalia from 1901 to 2021.
- Somali bee-eater (Merops revoilii)The Somali bee-eater: what it looks like, where it lives, how it feeds and nests, why the IUCN thinks its numbers may be rising, and its records in Somalia since 1894.
- Somali courser (Cursorius somalensis)The Somali courser: a wader of semi-desert and short grass, how to tell it from the cream-coloured courser, its two subspecies, and its records across Somali regions.
- Somali crombec (Sylvietta isabellina)The Somali crombec: a small African warbler of dry shrubland, its range, the subspecies named after the Maharaja of Baroda, and its records across Somali regions since 1896.
- Somali crow (Corvus edithae)The Somali crow or dwarf raven: size, range, nesting, voice, how it differs from the brown-necked raven, its Red List status and where it has been recorded in Somalia, region by region.
- Somali fiscal (Lanius somalicus)The Somali fiscal or Somali shrike: range, habitat, how it hunts and stores prey on thorns, nesting, Red List status and its records across Somali regions.