Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

All well here. Undersized Emu is her charming and idiosyncratic self. There's another 'new' bird I can't place yet. And Limpy Chick turns up every day or second day. Still seven chicks.

Spring is just wonderful.

SE

 

[Finchbreeder]

Glad to hear the 7 chicks are all doing well.

 

[briefvisit]

They are two months old today. In a month, they will enter the 'black head' stage.

 

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This is Undersized Emu.

Undersized Emu is quite the character. She’s the only wild bird in a decade to eat from my hand, and she runs towards me in the hope of a bit of wheat.

Her enthusiastic vocalisations have given us some simple data on how emus roost, as she vocalizes very late, then goes into the bush, and continues vocalizing; and very early, so you can hear her vocalizing while still at her roost, then see her appear, to vocalise in the house-clearing.

She luuurvs to big up, and strut sideways about the place . . . even if the nearest emu is 80 yards away. And she luurvs to vocalise enthusiastically while backing away from emus she can’t whoop.

 

[briefvisit]

 

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This is baby dinosaur fluffy bum:

 

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https://imgur.com/72RV7Bw

 

[Finchbreeder]

It would appear that Undersized - is the class performer.

 

[briefvisit]

Catch-Up Notes

Emu chicks start developing ‘black head’ plumage at about one season – twelve weeks. That is a fortnight from now. Feel free to laugh. I've been peering at their tooshes and the tops of their necks. It's the top of the necks where you usually see the first signs: tiny black pin feathers

https://imgur.com/lqVUJPt

These yellow flowers are an invasive species, but that’s a story for another day. Our interest is in the Giant Food World of the chicks. Just weeks ago, they were too short to reach the bird bath. Now they can. In late winter, there are plentiful tiny flowers for them to graze on, but the photo shows you the shift that a month makes in food availability.