Ostrich

Ostrich
Health points	25 × 12.5
Behavior	Neutral (wild) Passive (tamed)
Attackstrength	Easy: 2 Normal: 3 Hard: 4
Spawn	Opaque blocks with at least two block space above them.
Usable items	Saddle Helmet Chest Wool
Sounds	Idle Hurt Chick idle Death Jump Transform Drink
Common drops	cooked Ostrich (0–2)
Rare drops	See Drops
Experience	1–3
Internal ID	?
Namespaced ID	ostrich

“	I know that the ostriches do not bury their heads in the ground. It is a myth, a cliche. As many may have guessed, I love nature and its creatures, that's why I spend so much time coding animals more than other kinds of mobs. However I couldn't resist to include the head hiding behavior, it's just hilarious and fun to see it in game.	„
	—DrZhark

Ostriches are tall tamable mobs found in the Overworld.

Spawning

Natural generation

Ostriches spawn in desert biomes at light levels of 9 or more with at least 2 block space above. They often spawn in flocks of 1-4 during world generation.

Flocks can either come with males, females, or chicks. There is a small chance of an albino ostrich spawning.

Drops

Ostriches will drop:

• 0–2 Raw Ostrich, even if killed while on fire.
• 1–3 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
• 0–2 Heart of Darkness if wyvern variant (25% chance)
• 0–2 Heart of Fire if nether variant (25% chance)
• 0–2 Heart of Undead if undead variant (25% chance)
• 0–2 Unicorn Horn if unihorned variant (25% chance)
• 1 Saddle if equipped
• 1 Chest + contents if equipped
• Helmet if equipped
• Wool if equipped

Behavior

Female ostriches and chicks will stick their heads in the ground if attacked.

Male ostriches are neutral, and females and chicks are passive. Males will only attack when hit. If a chick or female is attacked, they will panic, run around randomly and stick their heads in the ground. Tamed ostriches do not react to being hit. Ostriches emit screams when they are hurt and/or die.

Prior to v6.3.1, female ostriches could lay eggs occasionally. If the egg was picked up by the player, both the male and female ostrich would chase and attack the player.

Breeding

Ostriches can be 'bred', though only one ostrich needs to be fed, not both of them. The player needs to pair a wild male and female ostrich together and give the female ostrich a melon seed. Unlike other breedable mobs, no love hearts will be shown and no baby mob will appear. After a female ostrich has been fed a melon seed, it will take a few minutes for an egg to appear. When the egg appears, an in-game message will notify the player that the egg will hatch soon. When it does, the egg can be picked up, otherwise the chick will hatch wild.

Prior to v6.3.1, ostriches could be bred by leaving a male and female ostrich a few blocks away from each other, it didn't matter if there were any other mobs nearby. After a short period of time, an egg would then appear. The baby ostrich that hatched would not be tamed unless the egg was picked up and hatched by the player.

Taming

A group of ostriches (2 males and 1 female) along with an egg

An ostrich can be tamed by hatching an ostrich egg. Unlike mobs that drop eggs, an ostrich doesn't need to be killed to get an ostrich egg.

Tamed ostriches can be healed by feeding them wheat, seeds, apples or golden apples. Tamed ostriches cannot lay eggs.

Essences

Feeding an ostrich an essence can cause it to transform. The table below lists the effects of the various essences ostriches will take.

To feed an ostrich, hold a valid essence and right click on the ostrich.

Food	Effect
Essence of Darkness	Turns an ostrich into a wyvern ostrich. Heals wyvern ostriches.
Essence of Fire	Turns an ostrich into an nether ostrich. Heals nether ostriches.
Essence of Light	Transforms a ostrich into a unihorned ostrich. Heals unihorned ostriches.
Essence of Undead	Turns an ostrich into a undead ostrich. Heals undead ostriches.

Usage

Equipment

Tamed ostriches can be equipped with saddles or crafted saddles, helmets, and chests. Chicks and wild ostriches cannot be equipped with anything.

Equipment can be placed on a ostrich by on the ostrich, or by accessing its inventory by using Left Shift + .

Protection

A helmet can be placed on a tamed ostrich to reduce the damage it receives. An ostrich can wear leather, gold, iron, diamond, fur, hide, reptile hide, or scorpion helmets. The only helmets ostriches cannot wear is chain helmets. If an ostrich is given a dyed leather helmet, the colour will not show, and the dyed helmet will return to normal if the helmet is removed.

Flags

All the 16 available colors of wool can be used on an ostrich to give it a flag. For example, giving an ostrich red wool will give it a red flag. If the ostrich is given a different color, the flag will change color again and the previous wool will be dropped.

To add a flag, right-click on the ostrich. It must already be tamed and have a chest, although a saddle is not required.

Storage

Ostriches can be equipped with a chest to give them 18 slots of inventory space.

An ostrich's inventory can be accessed by Left Shift + on the ostrich.

A chest can be given to a ostrich with the chest in hand, and afterwards the chest cannot be removed, except by killing the ostrich, with a scroll of freedom, or by placing the ostrich in a pet amulet. Upon death, the ostrich will drop the attached chest and its contents.

When an ostrich has been given a chest, an empty flag pole will be placed on the chest, so that a flag can be added.

Riding

A saddle or crafted saddle can be placed on an adult ostrich so it can be ridden. Ridden ostriches can be controlled with the standard directional controls, Space and the mouse. Pressing and holding Space will allow the ostrich to fly, but this only works on wyvern and nether ostriches, and it can be difficult to control them in mid-air.

Like other mounts, the hunger bar is replaced by the ostrich's health in survival or adventure mode. It uses a slightly different heart texture than the player's health bar. 

A whip can be used when riding an ostrich to give it a short speed boost. a whip when not riding it will make it remain stationary and have its head in the ground. If used again, the ostrich will pull its head from the ground and will be able to move again.

A medallion, book or name tag can be used to rename a tamed ostrich.

Variations

The four ostrich types (black,brown,albino and chicks)

Ostriches will typically spawn using one of four different skins. Skins include brown (female), black (male), albino, and brown with spots.

There are four special variants of ostriches that can be created by giving a tamed ostrich a certain essence. After an essence has been fed to an ostrich, it can be used with another essence to be changed again.

Image	Type	Description
	Unihorned ostrich	Can be obtained by using an essence of light on a tamed ostrich. They can charge at mobs in a similar fashion to a unicorn if a whip is used whilst riding one.
	Wyvern ostrich	Can be obtained by giving any tamed ostrich an essence of darkness. They can fly if the jump button (spacebar by default) is used in a timely fashion. They propel themselves forward once flying, and can be rather tricky to control in the air.
	Nether ostrich	A fireproof ostrich that can be created by using an essence of fire on a tamed ostrich, or by hatching an ostrich egg in the Nether.
	Undead ostrich	Can be obtained by giving a tamed ostrich an essence of undead. They do not decay over time. They also take damage from splash potions of Healing.

History

Version	Additions and Changes
3.6.0	Added ostriches.
v3.6.1	Fixed tamed ostriches attacking the player holding wheat.
v3.6.2	Ostriches won't lay eggs if there are already more than 10 eggs in the world. Tamed ostriches will lay eggs that hatch tamed chicks.
v3.7.0	Decreased the ostrich egg laying and spawning of new ostrich chicks. Added a new rare breed of ostrich.
v4.0.3	Fixed: horses, ostriches and dolphins can now jump!
v4.1.2	Fixed bug where ostriches would instantly die after being given an apple.
v4.1.2	Fixed bug that prevented tamed ostriches from being saddled (only works with new ostriches). Ostriches no longer spawn near light sources.
v4.4.0	Nether ostriches now lay nether ostrich eggs. Nether ostriches are now immune to fire. Ostrich 'head bobbing' reduced.
v4.5.0	Added three new types of ostriches.
v5.0.7	Tamed ostriches no longer retaliate if attacked by player. Fixed bug that prevented changing flag colors on ostriches.
v5.1.2 - DEV version	Fixed male ostriches showing incorrect chest name.
v5.1.3	Fixed bug when shearing ostriches.
v6.0.0 DEV R3'	Fixed ostrich crash.
v6.1.0 release	Fixed ostrich/wyvern flying.
v6.2.0 DEVR3	Added new config option 'ostrichEggThreshold' which controls how many ostriches there can be in world before ostriches can no longer lay eggs.
v6.2.1	Female ostriches eggs are no longer sterile. Players must now pick up the eggs in order to hatch them.
v6.2.1 hotfix1	Fixed ostrich eggs not hatching.
v6.3.1	Fixed ostriches not laying eggs. Added configurable egg drop chance for ostriches. Female ostriches now require a melon seed in order to have the ability to lay a single egg. Only untamed female ostriches can lay eggs with a male ostrich close by.
v12.05	Fixed ostrich not storing helmet data when equipped.

Trivia

• Like tamed wolves, tamed ostriches can be given rotten flesh without the risk of food poisoning.
• Nether ostriches fly in a way inspired by the game Joust.
• When an ostrich has been given a hide or fur helmet, it appears to have small bear ears.
• Unlike wyverns and horses, ostriches cannot wear horse armor.

The default ostrich

Gallery

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  The ostrich spawn egg

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  Preview

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  Preview

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