Ostriches turn heads at remote Himatangi roadside cafe

Olly is one two news ostriches at a Himatangi cafe.

A cafe in the middle of nowhere one day hopes to have omelettes made from world’s largest egg on the menu.

The Coffee Spots cafe is on a country road near Himatangi that has a 100km/h speed limit. In either direction, the view is of No 8 wire and baton farm fences, green grass, blue sky, and cows.

Each morning Annie Atkinson opens the big steel doors to her boutique cafe that once was a shipping container. Now it’s a cleverly decked-out bespoke space with tables and chairs outside - a destination rather than a flypast for locals and travellers.

Annie and husband Kevin already have Dalmatian dogs and 13 alpacas on their 4ha property - great conversation starters - so when she saw a couple of young ostriches for sale, she just knew they would be a good fit as the paddocks next to the cafe were fenced for deer.

Olly and Molly, both aged 3, arrived last week. For $1 customers could buy a bag of seed, consisting of a barley and maize mix, and experience what it’s like to feed them.

Annie Atkinson has Olly eating out of her hand.

As an animal lover, Annie said she had already fallen in love with Olly and Molly.

“They’re so friendly. Friends with benefits,” she said.

“They’re very nosy. They’re very inquisitive. They’ve got such great personalities. They might need their own Facebook page. They might even be open to some freelance work.”

“And they run fast, of course. They’d outrun me.”

Annie, who bought the Coffee Stop cafe four years ago and changed the name, said Coffee Spots could look to introduce ostrich eggs to the menu one day. They already offer dishes like scrambled eggs, using standard eggs.

“One ostrich egg to the equivalent of 24 normal-size eggs. Kevin has suggested we could maybe have a challenge where if you can eat the whole thing you get your money back,” she said.

Coffee Spots owner Annie Atkinson fans herself with ostrich feathers.

Molly just needs to start laying. Ostriches reach sexual maturity around 3 or 4-years-old. All going to plan, she might lay as many two eggs a week during the warmer months.

An egg can weigh about 1.4kg and measure 152mm in length. Only dinosaurs produced larger eggs. Both males and females share the tasks of incubating the eggs and caring for the chicks.

The incubation period is about 42 to 46 days. When they hatch, the chicks are about the size of barnyard chickens, but they grow quickly. Chicks start to leave the nest with their parents a few days after hatching.

By 4-months-old, they start to show their adult plumage and by 6-months-old, they are about the size of their parents.

Olly and Molly stop for a snack of their own.

Ostriches are the largest and heaviest birds in the world. Given their weight, they are flightless, but can run fast, reaching speeds of up to 67km/h. One stride can be 5m long. They have long, strong legs with two clawed toes.

For anyone who hasn’t seen one up close, an ostrich has a long neck and looks really fluffy, but what takes you are their huge eyes and eyelashes. With a width of more than 50mm, they have the largest eye of any land animal.

Ostriches have feathers that are loose, soft, and smooth, giving them a “shaggy” look. Adult male ostriches are black with white wings and tail feathers, while immature birds and adult females have brownish-gray feathers.

They are are omnivores and their diet varies depending on the food available in their habitat. They primarily eat plants, but also eat insects, snakes, lizards and rodents. They are able to consume things that other animals can’t digest because they have tough intestines to absorb as many nutrients as possible.

Ostriches also swallow sand, pebbles, and small stones that help grind up food in the gizzard.

The process of mating is ritualised and synchronised. A male uses his black-and-white colouring to attract a female. He will sink to the ground like a bow and then wave and shake the feathers of first one wing and then the other, while moving his tail up and down.

After this movement, he gets up and moves toward the female, holding his wings out and stamping as he goes to impress her. If she approves, she mates with him.

Life expectancy for an ostrich is between 30 and 40 in the wild, but in captivity they can live to be as old as 70.