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While out in the bush, by sitting stock still, I was able to observe a flock of eighteen birds pass slowly across my line of sight: you can really see the flock instinct evident. They move just as a flock in the sky does: there is a core, and I assume the alpha birds are there. Others drift...

The rains began about a month ago, just as the breeding-season began. Before the first rain, I had record numbers of emus at the fig tree. They were so hungry they were eating its leaves. Then, as I noted, my two (female) birds forsook me. For a lonely fortnight, I didn't see a single emu. (A...

My emus both disappeared about a week ago. Readers may remember that about a year ago I tried to 'rehabilitate' them, but they came home. However, they are fully adult now; breeding season has begun; the drought has broken and there's good feed around. So, I don't think they've had an...

Readers are probably aware that Eastern Australia has suffered floods of biblical proportions. However, where I am – the South West – we’re having a strange ‘undrought’: the Winter rains failed, and though we’ve had a ‘wet Summer’ of intermittent showers, this district is drier today than some...

After being absent for several days, Number One the Emu turned up, limping miserably, with ten feet of plain fencing wire hobbling her thighs. She was born and raised at the farmhouse, and came in trust, seeking food. The other emus attacked her, and there followed the bizarre scene of me...

Found this on the Net, readers. ‘Aepyornis, the 'elephant bird' of Madagascar was the largest bird ever known. Although shorter than the tallest moa, a large one could weigh 450 kilograms. There were two species when humans arrived from Borneo and Africa, probably in the 1st Century AD. Both...

There were six emus for breakfast this morning, except one of them is a sheep named 'Victa.' (Only Australians will appreciate this joke. We have a brand of lawnmower called 'Victa.') The two emu-emu visitors were Eric the Emu and Mrs. Eric. Eric has changed the pecking-order: he was, until...

The secondary preoccupation of my birds – after eating – is glukking and fumphing and feather-flaring and chasing one another endlessly around the house-clearing. Number One (bottom of the pecking-order) trots jauntily ahead of Felicity (number two) for hundreds of metres, around and around the...

I feel I've disappointed the readers: I just don't see myself being able to get photos of these wild chicks: my health isn't good, and I don't have a decent camera. They are truly will o' the wisp creatures, readers – they're WILD, and the only reason that they come without a MILE of the...

There's been interesting alph-emu stuff going on here. In short, my emus and their parents had an odd re-alpha-ising of the pecking order. I happened to be standing about . . . ohh . . . ten or twelve feet away when Greedy and Felicity had it out (over afternoon wheat). It was THE most...

'Kay, here's an explanation, without which these two pictures make no sense. I THINK I'm the only BYC person whose emus are tame – that is, I'm in Oz, and these are wild emus that I fed until they became tame. They were born and grew up in the vicinity of the farmhouse that I live in. Wild emus...

So, I'm in the garden, reading. Felicity Emu wanders in. I note that he ain't that slow: he's noted that the twenty-eight parrots (they're called 'twenty-eights' – I have no idea) are snipping plums of the plum tree, and the plums are falling inside the fence. Okay, he obviously understands...

All is excitement here. I seem to be inheriting five new emus!! Some time ago, I noted that a mob of chicks (one-year old) turned up at the house-clearing. Well, the mystery is solved: it was Eric the Emu, the father of my three birds. Yesterday, he turned up again, with the same five chicks...

At a distance, a one-year old emu looks like an exclamation mark. A couple wandered across the house-clearing just an hour ago. Two friends have reported seeing this season's chicks – 'about the size of a chicken,' they said. Whether it's usual or not, my three birds remain in Constant...

Until my three emus were about fourteen or fifteen months old, they made the same range of noises. The Internet articles that I'd read said that 'booming' – I think of it as 'gluk-glukking' – is the noise that defines the female. Then, I hear this quite unmistakeable sound for the first time...

Just a few minutes ago, having walked out to feed Number One the Emu, I was amazed to see a wild emu chick just standing in the house-clearing. Over the next few minutes (peeping through windows and around corners and from behind trees), I was able to watch two of my emus 'front up' and send...

Guys, do you find that the wind really spooks your emus? Supreme Emu

Interesting emu stuff is happening here, and I'd welcome observations: my emus, which are just old enough to mate, have been acting differently in recent weeks. For a start, I'd never ever seen them leave a single grain of wheat behind; but now they wander off halfway through eating their...

My emus sometimes mosey along when I walk to the highway, which is about a hundred yards beyond the front fence. (It's a very quiet road, but it is a highway.) So far, they've shown surprisingly little interest in crossing the highway, which is the only barrier between my place and an enormous...

Some readers may know that the young of some species of birds are genetically imprinted with a fear of certain predators. (If you 'run' the shadow of a 'hawk' across their environment, they will react in fear, though they have never seen a hawk.) Several articles I've read mention that emu...