Ostriches do not stick their heads in the ground when they’re in danger, according to the San Diego Zoo. Instead, it will do like all other creatures do and either try to get away or fight back, and when neither option works, it will try to employ a bit of crude camouflage. Specifically, it will flop to the ground and lay its head and neck on the ground. Since this part of the bird is of a lighter color than the rest, it may seem to the observer that the head is not there at all — or, as some have wrongfully concluded, that it buried its head in the ground.

On some occasions ostriches do place their heads in the ground, according to McGill University. But it has nothing to do with a flawed attempt at avoiding danger. Rather, it’s a simple nesting behavior. Ostriches don’t build nests in trees or other places above the ground, but under the ground. Sometimes they’ll check on their eggs or turn them, which does, in fact, require the bird to stick its head into the ground. This behavior may have led to the belief that the birds comically try to avoid danger by burying their head in the sand.