Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

Is Brash Boy 'outside the envelope'? I don't think so, Antique.

We gotta observe him further. Maybe the light is part of it. We have seen a couple of equally 'sandy' emus over the years -- and 'sandy' is the phrase we've used.

But his 'ruff' is amazing.

SE

 

[Finchbreeder]

In all species of birds there are occasional colour mutations. These mutations tend to be recessive (or we would see them more often) Also they are at higher risk of predation due to being more conspicuous. So reaching adulthood is an achievement.
Looking at him I suspect Brash Boy is a dilute. If you have seen a couple over the years - the odds are that the recessive gene is travelling through the local bloodline and every now and then a pair who have it click. Logical as most birds are fully or semi territorial and so will mate with other locals (who are probably their siblings, cousins or 2nd cousins)

 

[briefvisit]

Good morning, Finchbreeder. Oh, I like this!

The numbers of 'sandy' birds we've seen fits your prediction.

There are occasional 'sorta sandy' birds.

But the last remarkably sandy emu was a chick (over at Spring Valley) perhaps 12 years ago.

 

[briefvisit]

First time in years: live reporting

Brash Boy announced himself. Readers see how we ‘leverage’ the tameness of Undersized Emu: Brash Boy is far more willing to approach the house because U.E. had some nice wheat:

https://imgur.com/ujiMpC4

 

[briefvisit]

Next: we snuck inside; and around; and got in under the lilly pilly tree. It was fast and clumsy; but Brash Boy was already sneaking back after having bolted:

https://imgur.com/5vESxQg

 

[briefvisit]

But although we could see him through the leaves, he didn’t approach. Then U.E. vocalized and drifted off. This was puzzling until we realized that Limpy Chick and Co. had descended on the wheat. U.E. and B.B. had both exited stage left.

So we popped out from under the lilly pilly tree, only to realise that it wasn’t Limpy Chick. It’s the Dad-plus-five who had somehow arrived when there was wheat:

https://imgur.com/QEtAHKj

 

[briefvisit]

On earlier sightings, Dad plus five has bolted. Indeed, we haven’t had a good look at them until today. It may be that the presence of the other emus was again the ‘leveraging’ that benefits us so nicely:

https://imgur.com/heBnEss

Brash Boy was vocalising just metres back in the scrub at this point.
Edit: you can see him at far left in the final second of the clip.

 

[briefvisit]

https://imgur.com/CbbVcY6

Brash Boy again

 

[AntiqueB]

Who is in front of him in that last photo?