The feathers of the Masai ostrich lack barbs, which gives them a soft, downy appearance. Similar to other ostrich subspecies, they possess approximately 50–60 tail feathers, 16 primaries, 4 alular, and 20–23 secondary feathers. The wing and tail feathers have evolved to serve as decorative plumes for courtship display rather than flight.
For males, the majority of the body is covered in black feathers. White feathers appear along the tips of the wings, tail, and form a small ring partway up the neck that separates the black body feathers from bare neck skin. The white tail feathers are often discolored from dirt and appear reddish-brown.
Females tend to be smaller than males and also possess bare skin on both the neck and legs, though their skin color appears more beige than pink. Adult females body feathers are a uniformly-distributed, monochromatic color scheme of brown.
