Emu — printable fact sheet
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Emu
Dromaius novaehollandiae
Dromaius novaehollandiae is the second tallest bird alive and it turns the usual bird story upside down: it is the male who does everything. Once the female has laid her clutch of dark green eggs in a scrape, she generally leaves, and the male sits on the nest for around eight w…
Did you know?
- Emus have a specialized tracheal pouch that allows them to produce deep booming and drumming sounds that can be heard up to 2 kilometers away.
- Emus swallow stones, sometimes 45 grams' worth at a time, to grind food in the gizzard, and they will also swallow charcoal and, unhelpfully, glass and metal. They swim readily and will cross rivers with the body low in the water. Emu chicks are boldly striped in cream and brown for camouflage in grass and lose the pattern within a few months. Unlike almost all other birds, the emu has no crop, and food passes through the gut so fast that seeds are dispersed still viable — making the bird an important long-distance planter across arid Australia.
What I learned
Draw the emu
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