Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

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Big news this morning – apart from Undersized Emu walking through the car port.



Wait for it. Wait for it. Limpy Chick is a male.



I pegged LC as a female when ‘she’ was a young adult. Then ‘she’ was absent for years, and I’m fairly sure that ‘she’ was with Offsider when they turned up here some months ago.



So, okay.



Today, at first light, I recognised the vocalisations that herald a mating; got out my camera; and recorded it. Then realized, from their ruffs, that Limpy Chick is the male, and offsider is the female – which explains why I originally thought Offsider was a female!



We have a great video of the mating, but I gotta struggle to get it uploaded. Meanwhile, here is a nice clip of a kangaroo, a big kangaroo:

 

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https://imgur.com/ZyhKvmq

 

[AntiqueB]

Surprise after surprise today!

First, finding out Limpy Chick is male, then a kangaroo! (That second one probably isn't quite so surprising to you, but it sure was to me!)

So, wait. Offsider picked your house clearing, which just happened to be LC's chickhood home? Females choose the site, don't they?

 

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'So, wait. Offsider picked your house clearing, which just happened to be LC's chickhood home? Females choose the site, don't they?'

This, Antique, is what I was racking my memory about as I filmed the mating. I'm pretty sure that they turned up as a pair. So a Planet Rothschildi male has brought a female partner home.

And yes, as we understand it, the males do usually follow the females -- though when I wrote that long post, I left out the fact that Eric the Emu was an exception to this rule.

 

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So, Number One: even afters years of observations, I can still confuse females and males!

Number Two: this is a glitch, but not a biggie. Felicity Emu and Greedy Emu were both undoubtedly females -- they bred here. They brought their consorts here.

Felicity didn't mate until she was (from memory) five -- which seems late. It may have had to do with her being here at the house-clearing, but relentlessly bullied by Greedy. In that time, Felicity brought several prospective consorts here -- we were lucky to actually see the arrival of two of those, and those were for other reasons very good observations. So those were several more examples of the-male-follows-the-female-to-her-turf.

Eric the Emu, as noted, was an exception in that he was the dominant partner in his breeding-pair; but five times he brought here clutches of chicks that he incubated elsewhere -- presumably the female's territory (or a territory novel to both of them?).

Toosh Toosh has had two clutches, both incubated elsewhere (females' turf?), both brought here later.

 

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But finally, lest we get too big for our boots, let it be clear that we are always a little uncertain, and we are always ready to re-jigger our theories.

And just for fun:

I think it was Felicity and Eric's orphaned chicks in the months after he was killed. So, the rule is that males do the parenting; but several of these chicks just decided that Felicity was their Dad, and followed her resolutely around for days. She pecked them on the head. She gave them some serious swipes. But they persevered for some time (but finally got the message).

 

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https://imgur.com/unL0GmD

 

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Watch as they come in to land. They're my favourites, the red-tails.

 

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https://imgur.com/JsWs68A

 

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Note the male -- that's Limpy Chick! -- grabbing at the feathers on the back of the female's neck at the conclusion of the coitus. We've seen this with each observed copulation.

What purpose might it have?