diff --git a/src/uu/head/src/head.rs b/src/uu/head/src/head.rs
index eb863d81492..c86cec9bfd4 100644
--- a/src/uu/head/src/head.rs
+++ b/src/uu/head/src/head.rs
@@ -7,11 +7,12 @@
 
 use clap::{crate_version, Arg, ArgAction, ArgMatches, Command};
 use std::ffi::OsString;
+use std::io::ErrorKind::StorageFull;
 use std::io::{self, ErrorKind, Read, Seek, SeekFrom, Write};
 use std::num::TryFromIntError;
 use thiserror::Error;
 use uucore::display::Quotable;
-use uucore::error::{FromIo, UError, UResult};
+use uucore::error::{strip_errno, FromIo, UError, UResult};
 use uucore::line_ending::LineEnding;
 use uucore::lines::lines;
 use uucore::{format_usage, help_about, help_usage, show};
@@ -56,6 +57,9 @@ enum HeadError {
 
     #[error("{0}")]
     MatchOption(String),
+
+    #[error("error writing 'standard output': {}", strip_errno(.err))]
+    WriteError { err: io::Error },
 }
 
 impl UError for HeadError {
@@ -543,11 +547,16 @@ fn uu_head(options: &HeadOptions) -> UResult<()> {
             } else {
                 file
             };
-            return Err(HeadError::Io {
-                name: name.to_string(),
-                err: e,
+            match e.kind() {
+                StorageFull => return Err(HeadError::WriteError { err: e }.into()),
+                _ => {
+                    return Err(HeadError::Io {
+                        name: name.to_string(),
+                        err: e,
+                    }
+                    .into())
+                }
             }
-            .into());
         }
         first = false;
     }
diff --git a/tests/by-util/test_head.rs b/tests/by-util/test_head.rs
index d60b8bb4244..cc6977b639f 100644
--- a/tests/by-util/test_head.rs
+++ b/tests/by-util/test_head.rs
@@ -533,7 +533,7 @@ fn test_write_to_dev_full() {
                 .pipe_in_fixture(INPUT)
                 .set_stdout(dev_full)
                 .run()
-                .stderr_contains("No space left on device");
+                .stderr_contains("error writing 'standard output': No space left on device");
         }
     }
 }