When I visited Pinnaroo in eastern South Australia last week I visited the local aviaries next to the caravan park. I’ve featured some of the birds seen over recent days. Next to the aviaries was a large enclosure containing a small flock of Emus. They cam over to the fence to see what I was up to. I ignored them as I took photos of the birds in the cages. By the time I’d finished, the Emus had lost interest in me and had wandered off.
If you look carefully in the photo above, you can see an Emu sitting under the tree on the left hand side. It looks as though this is a male sitting on eggs. The female Emu will mate with the male, select a nesting site on the ground, a rough scrape in the dirt lined with a few twigs or leaves. She will lay the 5 to 11 large green eggs and then will leave.
The male takes over the task of incubating the eggs and caring for the young for up to 18 months. Meanwhile, the female wanders off and may mate with several other males during the breeding season.
Emus can be found throughout most parts of mainland Australia, especially in pastoral and cropping lands, plains, scrublands and national parks.