Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[AntiqueB]

Do they ever kill each other, like roosters can?

 

[briefvisit]

Not that I know of, Antique. It seems to be that one bird (usually a female) wears the crown. That is, she has beaten all competition on some given territory (like the house-clearing here). Then she/he is confronted; blows are exchanged in three seconds, and the king/queen does or does not still have the crown.

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/9fqoXZQ

And for no reason, here is a photo from the vault. It's Eric the Emu, with Uno Chick -- an old photo.

The fig trees haven't been cut back. They produced much more fruit, which attracted more wild emus.

And if it looks as though Eric is staring off into the distance, it's because he is. A Dad with chicks is splendidly vigilant. So, if an emu is on its own, you can the seconds off as it gobbles food/looks up and around/gobbles food/looks up and around. But a parenting Dad does it much more often.

SE

 

[briefvisit]

Four weeks into autumn.

Good observation at dawn – cool but not uncomfortable.

A female vocalized in the wee hours. Same ‘jumbled’ style. We’ll assume it’s Offsider Emu.



We heard and sighted a wild bird behind the fig tree. Figs are a day or two from cutting out. (Old Guy didn’t get any figs this year! Black coffee and really ripe figs are a treat at dawn in good years.)



And overall, autumn does seem to be in the air. All three birds here at present seem to be vocalising a little more.

 

[AntiqueB]

Eric the Emu is magnificent. Was he as big as he looks in that photo? Was there only one chick in that clutch?

 

[briefvisit]

He was a standard-sized emu, Antique. So far, it's not been apparent that size is related to aggressiveness.

Yes. This clutch, the third, consisted of just Uno. She became wonderfully tame, as she was here for quite some time.

https://imgur.com/KcyXNKJ

Here is Uno much later. This is what a healthy wild emu looks like.

And if you look closely at upper right, you can see an 'observation post.' Observations at this time extended across a broad swathe of territory, but hundreds of hours of observations were undertaken, with a cup of coffee and binoculars, from spots about the house-clearing.

 

[briefvisit]

4 a.m.: Offsider vocalised at length. Again 'jumbled'. Again quiet. But for some time (that I know of. I always fall asleep).

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/jc7r0RN

Dad And The Cheeky Chicks

 

[AntiqueB]

They're still together?!?

 

[briefvisit]

'They're still together?!?'

Yes!

I don't think anyone has learned as much about our methodology as you have.

So, one the one hand, the two times we've seen chicks reaching adult hood here -- Limpy Chick and Toosh Toosh, then Toosh Toosh's first clutch -- we had months of observations. So . . . that's good!

By the same token, it's only two data. So . . . that leaves us ready and eager to re-jigger it all.

One needs to learn to love this reality, Anitque, or go bonkers.

For example, we'd been observing the rothschildi here for a decade before we figured out that chicks (may) stay together after Dad gives them the boot.

In late spring/early summer, such chicks are indeed still technically chicks -- they still have black-head pin feathers -- but they're 90% the size of adult birds (which sometimes have neck feathers quite like the black-heads!) You might observe them from just 40 yards without noticing.

What if the clutch is just two chicks? or three? How would you distinguish them from any other two or three emus?

It was pure luck. A clutch of five post-Dad chicks snuck into the house-clearing to sneak a bit of grass. There were 'home-team' birds here, which enables us to get close to the fully wild emus. And I realised that this group were, in fact, chicks.


SE