The emu is an interesting specimen. It is a very large flightless bird from Australia. The emu dad takes care of the eggs after they are laid by the mum and he also takes care of the chicks for the first 18 months of life. Go emu dads!
Emu chicks just happen to be striped brown and cream and are pretty cute. After you make the little chick you can read up some other fun facts too.
What you need:
- Cardboard
- Staedtler Markers
- Colourful loose feathers – you can find these at a craft shop or even outside
- Glue
What to do:
- Draw the bird on the cardboard and colour it in. it has a round body, two thin legs and three toes. It has a long neck and a round little head with two big eyes. Don’t forget the stripes.
- Cut out the bird.
- Glue some feathers on the bird. If the feathers are long, just cut portions off to fit.
Here are some interesting fun facts about emus.
- The emu is native of Australia.
- Emus are the world’s second largest living bird and have survived 80 million years in Australia where they are found in the deserts, forests and on the plains.
An emu egg is green like an avocado. - The emu mom lays the eggs (up to 40) but it is the dad who sits on the eggs and takes care of the chicks for the first 18 months of life.
- Emu adapt well to climates from the outback of Australia where 120 Fahrenheit degrees is not uncommon to the -60 below zero Fahrenheit climate during northern Minnesota’s winters. That’s a known tolerance of over 180 degrees. Emu is a farmed bird that was sent to the United States for commercial use in 1950. (The exporting of native Australian emu has been banned for the past 30 years.)
- The nest of an Emu can be up to 1.5 metres wide and that is a pretty big nest.
- They are very nosy, and will swallow all kinds of strange things like keys, nails and bottle tops.
- The Emu is a fast runner and can reach speeds of up to 65 kph for short bursts. A running bird can make a stride of almost 3 meters. And it can duck, weave, stop and turn in a second.
- The Emu has been resident in Australia at least 80 million years.
