Hi all,
Now, here is an observation that you should not read just before you start dinner.
Heading out to the front gate at Bowra I stopped to watch an Emu that was “sitting” in the middle of the track. It was down on its “elbows” and “wrists” and pecking at the ground in front of it. Occasionally it would shuffle forward a bit, or turn around to peck from a slightly different angle. Sometimes the bird pecked with the tip of its beak, other times it turned its head sideways and raked the ground with the edge of the bill.
My first thought was that it was eating pebbles because I knew that birds often do this, but this was a dirt road and I didn’t expect there would be many pebbles on it. I watched it for about 4 or 5 minutes and took lots of photos because I had never seen an Emu eating in this pose.
The bird finally got up and walked off so I drove forward to see what had been interesting it. What I found was a large splodge (technical term – smile) of loose bird excrement. By the colour and shape it was fresh and I guess it was Emu, possibly from the same bird I had seen. The Emu had been pecking out lumpy bits and then turning its head to “shave” the thin runny portion off the track. Close up it was possible to see the swipe marks made by the bill and other places where the splodge had been pecked through to the road. Most of the bird’s attention had been in the centre of the splodge where it was white, rather than brown.
Checking google, as you do these days, I see that Emus eating Emu droppings has been observed in captive birds so the sighting is not unique. HANZAB does not mention this behaviour though. What interested me was that this bird was conscientiously making a meal of this splodge on the track; it was not partaking in a casual pecking at some droppings but was having a serious eating session.
The bird was a male and did not show any outward side of illness such as lost feathers etc.
Cheers
Jenny ============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
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Hi Jenny,
I’ve seen this behaviour quite often in wild and captive emu populations in Western Australia, particularly in semi-arid and arid areas.
Emu droppings usually contain a lot of viable seeds from partially-digested fruit. So a single emu dropping could potentially contain a localised, but concentrated food supply for a hungry emu. Emus are also not very good at retaining body water and their droppings generally have a high moisture content. Therefore coprophagy is one way an emu can reduce overall body water loss. It would be interesting to know if the emu you saw was eating its own droppings or that of another emu. My guess is that it was its own droppings.
Stephen Ambrose Ryde NSW
—–Original Message—– href=”mailto:birding-aus-bounces@vicnet.net.au”>birding-aus-bounces@vicnet.net.au [mailto:birding-aus-bounces@vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of jenny spry Sent: Sunday, 18 July 2010 6:51 PM
Hi all,
Now, here is an observation that you should not read just before you start dinner.
Heading out to the front gate at Bowra I stopped to watch an Emu that was “sitting” in the middle of the track. It was down on its “elbows” and “wrists” and pecking at the ground in front of it. Occasionally it would shuffle forward a bit, or turn around to peck from a slightly different angle. Sometimes the bird pecked with the tip of its beak, other times it turned its head sideways and raked the ground with the edge of the bill.
My first thought was that it was eating pebbles because I knew that birds often do this, but this was a dirt road and I didn’t expect there would be many pebbles on it. I watched it for about 4 or 5 minutes and took lots of photos because I had never seen an Emu eating in this pose.
The bird finally got up and walked off so I drove forward to see what had been interesting it. What I found was a large splodge (technical term – smile) of loose bird excrement. By the colour and shape it was fresh and I guess it was Emu, possibly from the same bird I had seen. The Emu had been pecking out lumpy bits and then turning its head to “shave” the thin runny portion off the track. Close up it was possible to see the swipe marks made by the bill and other places where the splodge had been pecked through to the road. Most of the bird’s attention had been in the centre of the splodge where it was white, rather than brown.
Checking google, as you do these days, I see that Emus eating Emu droppings has been observed in captive birds so the sighting is not unique. HANZAB does not mention this behaviour though. What interested me was that this bird was conscientiously making a meal of this splodge on the track; it was not partaking in a casual pecking at some droppings but was having a serious eating session.
The bird was a male and did not show any outward side of illness such as lost feathers etc.
Cheers
Jenny ========== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) href=”mailto:birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au”>birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ==========
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Jenny,
Perhaps it was topping up its’ gut bacteria.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
Hi all,
Now, here is an observation that you should not read just before you start dinner.
Heading out to the front gate at Bowra I stopped to watch an Emu that was “sitting” in the middle of the track. It was down on its “elbows” and “wrists” and pecking at the ground in front of it. Occasionally it would shuffle forward a bit, or turn around to peck from a slightly different angle. Sometimes the bird pecked with the tip of its beak, other times it turned its head sideways and raked the ground with the edge of the bill.
My first thought was that it was eating pebbles because I knew that birds often do this, but this was a dirt road and I didn’t expect there would be many pebbles on it. I watched it for about 4 or 5 minutes and took lots of photos because I had never seen an Emu eating in this pose.
The bird finally got up and walked off so I drove forward to see what had been interesting it. What I found was a large splodge (technical term – smile) of loose bird excrement. By the colour and shape it was fresh and I guess it was Emu, possibly from the same bird I had seen. The Emu had been pecking out lumpy bits and then turning its head to “shave” the thin runny portion off the track. Close up it was possible to see the swipe marks made by the bill and other places where the splodge had been pecked through to the road. Most of the bird’s attention had been in the centre of the splodge where it was white, rather than brown.
Checking google, as you do these days, I see that Emus eating Emu droppings has been observed in captive birds so the sighting is not unique. HANZAB does not mention this behaviour though. What interested me was that this bird was conscientiously making a meal of this splodge on the track; it was not partaking in a casual pecking at some droppings but was having a serious eating session.
The bird was a male and did not show any outward side of illness such as lost feathers etc.
Cheers
Jenny ============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) href=”mailto:birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au”>birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ==============================
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http://birding-aus.org ==============================