Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/ALPZH9V

Another old photo. We had an emu here once -- 'Dark Emu' -- that looked like it had just stepped out of an emu beauty salon, a really handsome bird.

This sandy bird looks like it slept in a ditch.

 

[AntiqueB]

He does look bad!
Is the wedge-tailed emu in the emu family? Or is it a different kind of bird?

 

[briefvisit]

Oh my goodness! I really did type 'wedge-tailed emu.'

I meant wedge-tailed eagle.

This guy:

 

[briefvisit]

And for reference: the emu family, the 'ratites' is:

emu: Australia
cassowary: Australia and islands to the north
rhea: South America
ostrich: Africa
kiwi: New Zealand (and ?)

And there are some groovy super-sized prehistoric relatives.

The ratites are characterised by the lack of a 'keel' along the sternum. In flying birds, that's where the fabulous muscles that power flight are 'anchored.'

 

[briefvisit]

Kiwis are rarely ever mentioned on this thread, even less than rheas, so:

 

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The Old Guy Here -- me -- is busy scrubbing walls and floors for my rental inspection.

Then we shall discuss some things.

 

[briefvisit]

We have three interesting things going on.

The first is the runty little emu. It was here about ten days ago. And its cleverness is that it doesn’t challenge Limpy Chick and Offsider. Doesn’t vocalise. It just seems to turn up when Limpy Chick and Offsider are absent. Clever emu!

 

[briefvisit]

The second thing is Dad and The Cheeky Chicks – and I have some photos, but can’t upload them right now.



They were here at dawn. LC and Offsider seem to see them as a force of nature: something they can't do anything about.

We still wonder why they are so tame – was Dad here at some time in the past?



But the much more interesting question is: when will Dad dump these chicks? It is mid summer. These ‘chicks’ – they are still chicks because they are still cheeping – will be adults in eight weeks. So . . . ??

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/9LfVE2h

Ok. This photo has gone up ok. More later.

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/nrmQepW