My daughter recently took a summer birding class for kids, and after learning so much about birds, and seeing another kid with a stuffed bird, she wanted her own.  I treated her to her choice of birds from the Wild Republic collection, and she chose this baby ostrich.

I purchased this at a local gift shop, after trying to remember where I had seen these before and having a tough time finding them!  I see that they are also sold on Amazon.com, but I wanted to let my daughter pick one out in person.  There are quite a few birds to choose from, and I was surprised when she chose this one, since I was guessing she would choose a song bird.

This cost me $7.99, which seemed about reasonable, although it is a little cheaper on Amazon.  I didn't have time to order online, but it seemed like a good price for basically an impulse purchase at a gift shop.  The tag had some facts about ostriches, but once I took it off, I think we threw it out, so I've had to follow up on ostrich facts by looking them up online.

All of the birds in the collection have a little box inside the body that you can squeeze, and the bird will play a realistic noise.  A lot of the birds are popular song birds, so I was glad to see this one as well, which is a little more unique.  Whereas the songbirds were often easy to recognize, I didn't know what a baby ostrich sounded like.  The sound is a short clip, and it is a cute chirping.  We haven't had it long enough to learn how long the batteries last, and there is no way to access the voice box, so once it runs out, that's it.

The voice box is easy to feel within this plush toy, and it is easy to squeeze.  My 5 year old has no problem playing the sound effect, and even though you can easily feel the box, the ostrich still manages to be snuggly.

The ostrich is super cute.  It has a very furry body, and big black eyes.  My 5 year old chose this over her original choices, which included a hummingbird and cardinal, so I was surprised.  But it is an endearing little baby bird!

Overall, this is a cute and unique baby bird.  It has encouraged my 5 year old to learn more about birds and ostriches in particular.  We all think it is adorable, and I have a feeling that it is just the start of our bird collection, and unlike other plush toys we have, it is nice that it has an educational twist to it. 

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 7.99
Type of Toy: Stuffed Toy
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years