Mating-Season in Australia

[Tame Emu Guy]

Readers,
linguists use the term ‘noisy data’ to denote the fact that good data is randomly mixed with bad data. (Children learn to speak fluently from the noisy data that is the language spoken around them.)
Emus would do well in the diplomatic corps, where everything is done slowly and indirectly and with great ceremony. There are two wild birds here with Greedy and Boy Emu. I’m sure enough that they are two of the birds that I call the ‘wild birds’ in a post above. Male or female? Gee, I wish emus came in pink and blue.
For a half an hour, they sidled about, cropping a little grass; scratching their tushes. Greedy was, for the first time this season, doing the walk-sideways-vocalise boogie; and she seemed to be staying between Boy Emu and the new two – mating behaviour? But then Boy Emu flared his ruff and had a little charge at them. – territorial behaviour? Then everyone went back to cropping and scratching and pretending to pay no attention.
Greedy’s second consort (‘Other Boy Emu’ . . . wa ha ha . . . ) is definitely back in ‘loose orbit.’

I note here that autumn rains have produced ‘fresh pick.’ All summer, emus peck-peck-peck at seeds. Those seeds have now germinated, and are the fresh pick. So the birds have switched to the sideways ‘cropping’ motion that will characterise their feeding until mid-spring, when there are flowers and some seeds to be had. In mid-winter, I’ve seen whole squads of emus on their knees, in the pouring rain, in ten inches of grass, cropping and cropping and cropping. Grass in one end; squirt-poop out the other. There is so little nutrition in the grass that they have to work hard to stay healthy.

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

‘Went bush’ today, with a French visitor, who is a . . . bird watcher!! We snuck up the back of a blue gum plantation. We sighted a dozen wild birds there, on a large open space, and they stayed, though they knew we were there. What interested me – is this ‘flocking up? Are the birds in groups other than their normal flocks? – was that six of the birds ran off in one direction; five ran off in another; and the last one ran off on its own. I’ve never seen that.
Both of us also noticed that one of the birds was remarkably light in colour, almost sandy in the chest and neck.
Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

The same sandy-coloured emu in the same place today. Two times in three days. It’s the first time I’ve ever been able to assume any territoriality (that is, except for my own greedy lazy birds).

You can actually tell how old the ‘blessings’ on the ground are because the ones that are six weeks or more old are almost entirely composed of grass seeds, which the birds can effectively strip at a rapid rate.

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

We went again today to ‘Stinky Creek,’ where we saw the sandy emu a couple of days ago. We saw some emus. Some ran away. Some didn’t. We aren’t sure if they were one group or two (which is relevant to the flocking-up thing). However, the sandy-coloured emu was one that ran away – so that’s three sightings of the same bird in exactly the same place.

Next, the group that did stay contained a gorgeous sandy-coloured chick. We were able to watch it through the binoculars (and there were three ‘brumbies’ – mustangs – watching us from about one-and-a-half tennis courts away).

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Three wild birds cruised through yesterday. Today, a couple of birds – I think two of those here both yesterday and a couple of weeks ago – dropped by, and Greedy and Boy Emu wandered off with them [!?].

Supreme Emu

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

The same three wild birds – the dark one and the ‘twins’ mentioned above – were back yesterday, and everyone grazed harmoniously in the sunshine. Winter rains began last night.

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Comments, please:

here’s a first guess: the three birds that have been loitering about the house-clearing for some time are males. I just saw Boy Emu have a crack at ‘Dark Emu,’ and drive him over a barbed-wire fence. (No harm done.)
Now, The Books say that females fight for access to males – so why is Greedy living here like Lady Muck? seemingly oblivious to mating-season? (She has been a real homebody of late: there is good grazing, and plentiful berries on several big trees by the house.) Well, I now figure that she’s done her fighting; and she ‘won’ the house-clearing. Other females aren’t going to challenge her twenty feet from the house (and she’d whup them anyway).
If this is the case, what is going on makes sense. Dark Emu – and let me stress that he’s a fine bird: big and healthy-looking – and the twins (also fine specimens) are coming to try to attract Greedy. Boy Emu has, notwithstanding driving off Dark Emu, not paid much attention (and those kerfuffles could be territorial anyway).

Meanwhile, the mating-season dynamic continues: I haven’t seen any ‘random’ birds near the house for weeks now.

Supreme Emu

 

[kathyinmo]

Your theory makes sense to me! How exciting!

 

[Tame Emu Guy]

Kathyinmo, I'm so glad someone is reading.

Yes, My Theory may be basically right; but having read The Article, I think Dark Emu could be female.

And another issue I want advice on: check the silhouettes of the sub-species in The Article -- Dark Emu should be an eastern-states bird, that is, novaehollandiae. Could the silhouettes be mislabelled? (Is Dark Emu a tourist?) Whatever, there is far more difference than we BYC people might have thought!

Also, the range map turns my theory of Which Youtube Emu Sub-species Is from Where on its head.

Curiouser and curiouser

Supreme Emu

 

[kathyinmo]

I read, somewhere?, that they change colors according to their environment. I think I read that. Did I imagine that? Hmmm.

Well, ya know what - my friend, Mary, is in California (western USA) and I am in central America. She told me that (from my pictures) my emus are a different color than hers..... and they came from the same place!