Wild Emus at The Lilly Pilly Tree

[briefvisit]

'Could the super plumage give any kind of evolutionary advantage?'

Another good question.

Okay, I’ve dug out the clip in question:

https://imgur.com/HenM9Kz

This chick’s black head feathers should clearly mark it as a black-head chick – but look at its plumage!

 

[briefvisit]

Female emus vocalise at night – at least the ones that are ‘in command.’ You can almost always tell the bird in question. Most females have a ‘single-barrel foomph.’ A few emit double-barrel foomphs.



The string of foomphs is usually about seven to fifteen. Each bird sticks to its ‘signature foomphs.’



If any readers have pet emus that do this, please do post: how many foomphs?



But GB has a unique vocalization. She emits ‘rolling foomphs.’



The females ‘talk to the farmhouse’ when Old Guy turns the light on to go for a midnight wee. It took me ages to figure out it wasn’t a coincidence: you turn the light on; foomph foomph foomph.

 

[briefvisit]

We’re settling in to spring at this point. GB and Consort have reached some equilibrium with Limpy Chick: just a little pro forma foomphing and running about.

Here is Limpy Chick:

https://imgur.com/7isixEe

Here is a kangaroo enjoying the spring sunshine in my backyard:

https://imgur.com/NZa5zII

 

[briefvisit]

So, what about breeding-pairs?



The literature (usually) says that emus form pairs in autumn; copulate; the female lays eggs and leaves; and Dad incubates.



But it’s 12-13 years since we wondered if Mrs. Eric the Emu – the female trailing along behind Eric the Emu – was the same emu for more than one year.



In both our observations of a male incubating – Boy Emu and Noddy Big Ears – the female stuck around. Was that because they were young?



And now we have a ‘breeding-pair’ in spring – that’s 6-8 months before expectations. Are GB and Consort a ‘real’ breeding-pair? Heck, we don’t know! They seem to be a breeding-pair. They behave like a breeding-pair.



But GB is a young emu – just weeks into her first year with her hat in the ring. Is this just puppy love? An experiment? Heck, we don’t know!



‘Mating season begins in December-January, which starts with the male and female emu engaging in a courtship dance. The result is dependent on the male emu's performance . . . . Success of the male emu means up to five months of mating privileges with the courted female . . . ’

We’ve never seen a courtship dance, and the male has no need for five months of mating privileges. The mating, the laying, and the beginning of the incubation happen lickety-split.



‘This period of dependence lasts up to 7 months, after which the emus are fully grown . . . ’

This is just wrong.



SE

 

[AntiqueB]

Emus' eyes seem to be more forward than other prey birds. Are they predators or prey?

Are emus ever banded to get concrete data more easily than having to recognize a bird?

 

[briefvisit]

'Are they predators or prey?'

Emus are 99% vegie-sauruses -- they will scoff up grasshoppers and a dead mouse or two.

As chicks they are vulnerable, Antique. A wide range of critters predate on the chicks; but I imagine a dingo would be the only thing (modernly, a fox) that would tackle an adult emu.

 

[briefvisit]

'Are emus ever banded to get concrete data more easily than having to recognize a bird?'

Good question. My first answer is that there is much much less ornithological data on emooz than you might think.

I found this:

'Our preliminary data highlight the utility of GPS telemetry to elucidate the movement ecology of a large ratite, whose movement potential had only previously been described from traditional bird-banding methods, with weeks or months passing between observations . . . '

'https://www.researchgate.net/public...ults_of_banding_154_Emus_in_Western_Australia

We sure have in the past discussed how we might be able to track an emu(s) in order to get some sense of their territory.

SE

 

[briefvisit]

Emus calling inter-territorially is something that generally only observers of wild emus get to enjoy.



GB was vocalizing at 4 a.m. – her calls are easily identifiable. We were having coffee in the garden at 6 a.m. A female was clearly but faintly vocalizing to the south. It (almost certainly) wasn’t GB.



Limpy Chick turned up early, and got some yummy wheat. Then she vocalized a little, and drifted off to the north.



This gives us a ‘sound-scape.’ GB (and surely Consort) were quite near just before dawn. Did they hike off in the opposite direction at first light? That is, why didn’t we hear them when Limpy Chick was in the garden, and the unknown female was vocalizing to the south?



Was the ‘southern female’ with other emus?



We don’t know! What we know is that three females vocalized over two hours. One was almost surely GB. The other was Limpy Chick – we saw her.



Otherwise??

 

[AntiqueB]

A mystery lady!

 

[briefvisit]

Suppose y’all get a chance to come out observing.



We have been lately observing just here in the house-clearing; but at its zenith, the observation area was ten miles across.



There are always three realities while observing: what you can hear at that time, what emus you can see at that time, and any other ‘emu evidence’ that is also visible (like the track of the chick at the dam that I posted the other day.) The soundscape is one that we just haven’t talked about much.



Dads talk to their chicks. Breeding-pairs and the members of mobs on the move talk to each other. Emus talk to themselves – but this is ‘local’ stuff.



At the same time, across huge spaces, emus – mostly females – are communicating inter-territorially.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/emu-pictures-and-stories-post-them-here.640112/page-12 There are photos of Felicity and Greedy communicating inter-territorially here. No one has, to our knowledge, every before documented this.





What if we could do this in Woodwardi territory?



The Woodwardi are the desert emus of the northern part of Western Australia (and further east). There is astonishingly little material on them, including a lack of pictures.







This was hard to find:

We assume that the density of emus in territory like this is far far lower than here in Rothschildi territory.



What if we sat on a hill on a perfectly still night in this territory, and audited the soundscape?



SE