Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae): Facts, Size, Diet and Habitat

What does an emu look like?

An emu has a long neck, long bare legs and a body covered in shaggy, gray-brown feathers that hang down like a loose cloak. Each feather has two equal shafts growing from a single base, an unusual feature among birds. The feather tips are black and soak up the sun’s heat, while the looser inner plumage insulates the skin, which lets emus stay active on hot days.

The head and neck are thinly feathered, so patches of bluish skin show through. Plumage color varies with the soil: birds in red, dry country often look rusty, and birds in wetter regions are darker. Males and females look much alike. Each foot has three forward-facing toes, unlike the two-toed ostrich, and each toe carries a strong claw.

The wings are tiny, only about 20 cm (8 in) long, and end in a small claw. Emus also have a see-through third eyelid, called a nictitating membrane, that sweeps sideways across the eye and acts like a visor against dust.

How big is an emu?

Emus stand 1.5–1.9 m (4 ft 11 in–6 ft 3 in) tall when upright and measure 139–164 cm (55–65 in) from bill to tail. Adults weigh 18–60 kg (40–132 lb). Females are usually a little larger and heavier than males, with averages of roughly 37 kg (82 lb) for females and 31.5 kg (69 lb) for males.

Only the common and Somali ostriches are taller. By weight, the emu ranks behind the two ostriches and the two largest cassowaries, which makes it about the fourth or fifth heaviest living bird. See how it measures up against Africa’s giant in emu vs ostrich.

How fast can an emu run?

The emu is built for running. Its leg muscles make up a share of its body weight similar to the flight muscles of a flying bird, and it can sprint at about 48 km/h (30 mph). A walking emu takes strides of about 1 m (3 ft 3 in), but at full gallop a stride can stretch to around 2.75 m (9 ft).

Emus are endurance travelers too. The Australian Museum notes that they can move hundreds of kilometers to find food and water, sometimes covering 15–25 km (9–16 mi) a day. They can also swim when they need to cross a river or a flooded area.

Where do emus live?

Wild emus live only in Australia, across most of the mainland from the coast to the Snowy Mountains. They are most common in savanna woodland and open eucalyptus forest and are rare in rainforest, very dry desert and heavily built-up areas. Once common around Sydney and along the east coast, they are now scarce there.

Elsewhere, farming has helped them. Water points dug for livestock in the dry interior have let emus spread into areas that were once too dry. Emus are nomadic: they follow rain, new grass and fruit. In Western Australia they tend to move north in summer and south in winter, while in the east their wanderings look more random.

Three small island forms, on Tasmania, King Island and Kangaroo Island, died out in the 1800s after European settlement. The emus living on Kangaroo Island today come from mainland birds introduced in the 20th century.

What do emus eat?

Emus are omnivores that eat whatever is in season. Plants make up much of the diet: seeds, fruit, flowers, young shoots and grasses, including Acacia seeds and native fruits such as quandong. They also eat many insects and other small animals, including grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, caterpillars and ants, which supply much of their protein.

Like many birds, emus swallow stones that help the muscular gizzard grind tough plant food. A single stone may weigh 45 g (1.6 oz). Emus usually drink once a day when water is available and can drink for up to ten minutes at a time, but they can also go without water for several days.

By swallowing fruit whole and passing the seeds far away, emus are important seed dispersers. Their taste for crops brought them into conflict with farmers, most famously in 1932. Read the full story in What was the Great Emu War?.

Behavior and communication

Emus are active by day. They spend their time feeding, preening, dust bathing and resting, and they sleep at night in short bouts, waking roughly every 90 minutes. In total they sleep about seven hours a day, often sitting with the neck folded so that the resting bird looks like a small mound.

Outside the breeding season, emus live alone, in pairs or in loose groups. Large flocks form mainly when many birds move toward the same food or water.

Emus make deep booming and grunting sounds. The boom is produced with an inflatable pouch in the throat, and a strong boom can be heard up to 2 km (1.2 mi) away. Females do most of the booming, especially during courtship, while males do most of the grunting.

How do emus breed?

Emus pair up in the Australian summer, and the female lays eggs in the cool months, usually April to June. Unusually, the female does the courting and may fight other females over a male. She lays 5–15 very large eggs, one every two to four days, in a flat nest of grass, bark and leaves. Fresh eggs are dark bluish green; find out why in Why are emu eggs green?.

Once laying is under way, the male takes over completely. He sits on the eggs for about eight weeks, rarely standing except to turn them, and does not eat, drink or leave the nest. He loses about a third of his weight in the process. The female often leaves and may breed again with another male.

The chicks hatch after about 56 days, striped cream and dark brown for camouflage. The father guards them fiercely for many months and teaches them where to find food. Young emus are nearly full-grown at about one year and can breed from about 20 months. Learn more in Do male emus sit on the eggs?.

How long do emus live?

Wild emus typically live 5–10 years, according to Animal Diversity Web, because droughts, food shortages, predators and cars take their toll. In captivity, with steady food and water, they commonly live 15–20 years.

Predators and threats

Adult emus have few natural predators. The dingo is the main one, and wedge-tailed eagles sometimes attack young or small birds. An emu can defend itself by jumping and kicking or by running in a zigzag. Eggs and chicks are more vulnerable and are taken by dingoes, introduced red foxes, feral pigs, dogs, monitor lizards and birds of prey.

The biggest threats today come from people: clearing and breaking up of habitat, collisions with vehicles, and fences that block movements. In the past, emus were also killed in large numbers as crop pests, and bounties were still paid in Western Australia in the 1960s.

Conservation status

The IUCN Red List classes the emu as Least Concern, with a population considered stable. A widely cited estimate puts the wild population at about 630,000–725,000 birds, although numbers swing with rainfall. Wild emus are protected under Australian law, and the mainland population may be larger now than before European settlement thanks to farm water supplies.

Local populations can still be at risk. The small emu population of the New South Wales North Coast is listed as endangered by the state government.

Myths and facts about emus

Myth: the emu is on the coat of arms because it cannot walk backward. This story is repeated often, but no official record gives it as the reason. The emu and kangaroo were more likely chosen simply as familiar animals found only in Australia.

Myth: the emu is Australia’s official national bird. Australia has never formally adopted a national bird, although the emu is widely treated as one.

Fact: emu fathers do almost all the parenting. Incubation, chick care and defense fall to the male, which is rare among birds.

Fact: emus are related to cassowaries. Their closest living relatives are the three cassowaries of Australia and New Guinea, and both belong to the ratites, the group that also includes ostriches, rheas and kiwis.

Emus and people

Emus have been part of Aboriginal Australian life and culture for tens of thousands of years, as a source of food, oil, feathers and tools, and as figures in many stories. Several Aboriginal traditions see the dark dust lanes of the Milky Way as a giant emu in the sky.

Today the emu is an unofficial national symbol. It holds up the shield on the Australian coat of arms opposite the red kangaroo, and hundreds of Australian places carry its name. Emus are farmed in Australia, North America and elsewhere for meat, leather and oil. Among the world’s flightless birds, few are as well known.