Animal
Emu
The emu is a very tall bird from Australia. It cannot fly, but it runs fast on its long legs. Emu dads take care of the eggs and the chicks.
The emu is Australia's tallest native bird and the second-largest bird in the world, after the ostrich. It cannot fly, but it can sprint at about 48 kilometers an hour. Emus are famous fathers: the male sits on the eggs for about eight weeks without eating, then looks after the striped chicks.
Dromaius novaehollandiae is a large flightless bird found only in Australia, where it ranges over most of the mainland and moves widely with rain, food and water. Its hairlike, double-shafted feathers, booming calls from an inflatable neck sac and male-only incubation make it distinctive, and its numbers may even have grown since European settlement.
Photo: JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the emu
The emu is a big, shaggy bird from Australia.
It has a long neck, long legs and soft gray-brown feathers. Its wings are tiny, and it cannot fly. But it can run very fast!
The emu is the tallest bird that lives naturally in Australia, standing about 1.5 to 1.9 meters tall. In the whole world, only the ostrich is bigger. Female emus are larger and heavier than males.
An emu is covered in shaggy gray-brown feathers, but its head and neck are almost bare, with bluish-black skin. Its wings are very small and cannot lift it off the ground. Instead, it has long, powerful legs.
The emu is Australia's tallest native bird; the Australian Museum gives a standing height of 1.6 to 1.9 meters, and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance gives 1.5 to 1.9 meters and 30 to 55 kilograms, with females larger and heavier than males. It is the second-largest living bird after the ostrich.
Adults are covered in shaggy gray-brown plumage except for the largely bare, bluish-black head and neck. The wings are greatly reduced. The name 'emu' is not an Aboriginal word; the Australian Museum suggests it may come from an Arabic word for a large bird, used by Portuguese explorers for cassowaries and later applied to this species.
Quick facts
- Group
- Bird
- Height
- 1.5 to 1.9 m
- Weight
- 30 to 55 kg
- Top speed
- up to 48 km/h
- Lifespan in the wild
- 10 to 20 years
Where it lives
Emus live only in Australia.
They live in open woodlands, grassy places and even high mountains. They walk a long way to find food and water.
Wild emus live only in Australia, across most of the mainland, from the coasts to high in the Snowy Mountains. They like open woodlands and grassy plains, and they avoid big cities, thick rainforest and the driest deserts.
Emus go where the food and water are. If there is plenty, they stay put. If not, they set off, sometimes walking hundreds of kilometers at 15 to 25 kilometers a day.
The IUCN's 2018 global assessment lists Australia as the only country in the emu's native range. The Australian Museum describes its main habitats as sclerophyll forest and savanna woodland, from coastal regions up into the Snowy Mountains, and notes that it is rarely found in rainforest or very arid areas.
Movements follow conditions: where food and water are reliable, emus stay; where they vary, birds travel hundreds of kilometers, sometimes 15 to 25 kilometers a day. San Diego Zoo reports that in Western Australia emus move north in summer and south in winter. Emus once lived in Tasmania but were wiped out soon after Europeans arrived.
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Most of mainland Australia, from the coasts to the Snowy Mountains; absent from big cities and much of the crowded east coast, and extinct in Tasmania.
Places: Australia.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in Australia, New Zealand, United States, UK, Germany, India, South Africa, UAE and 22 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
What it eats
Emus eat seeds, fruit, leaves and bugs.
They eat different foods at different times of the year. Seeds come out in their droppings and grow into new plants.
Emus are omnivores that search for food during the day. They eat fruits, seeds, young plant shoots and insects such as grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillars, and sometimes small animals like lizards.
Their menu changes with the seasons: acacia seeds in the dry time, fresh grass shoots and caterpillars after rain, and beetles, grasshoppers and fruit in spring. Many seeds they swallow come out whole in their droppings, so emus help plant new bushes and trees as they wander.
The diet includes fruits, seeds, growing shoots, insects, other small animals and even animal droppings (Australian Museum). San Diego Zoo describes a seasonal pattern: acacia seeds until the rains, then new grass shoots and caterpillars; cassia leaves and pods in winter; beetles, grasshoppers and fruit in spring, plus crickets, ladybugs, lizards, moth larvae and ants.
Because many seeds pass through the gut intact, emus disperse seeds widely in their droppings as they travel, which San Diego Zoo describes as an important role in their habitat.
Did you know?
Emus are good swimmers.
Emus are good swimmers and do not mind a dip in a pond or lake.
Despite their size, emus swim well, according to San Diego Zoo.
Shaggy feathers and strong legs
Emu feathers look like hair.
Each one has two parts. Emus have three toes on each foot. Their strong legs can jump high and run fast.
Emu feathers are unusual. Each one grows as a double feather from a single spot, and its loose barbs do not hook together, so the feathers look like shaggy hair. New feathers are almost black, but the sun fades them to grayish brown.
Emus have three toes on each foot, all pointing forward. Their long legs let them trot for great distances, sprint at about 48 kilometers an hour, take strides almost 2.7 meters long and jump about 2.1 meters straight up.
Each follicle produces a double-shafted feather whose widely spaced barbs lack the hooks that interlock typical feathers, giving a loose, hairlike plumage that is less water-resistant than most birds'. New feathers are nearly black and fade to gray-brown in the sun; the stiffer tail feathers can be rattled to deter predators such as dingoes.
The feet have three forward-facing toes and no hind toe, with fewer bones and muscles than those of flying birds. San Diego Zoo reports sprints of about 48 km/h, strides of almost 2.7 meters and vertical jumps of about 2.1 meters. A throat pouch, part of the windpipe, produces booming calls.
Super dads
The mother emu lays big green eggs.
Then the dad sits on them for about eight weeks. He does not eat or drink. The chicks have stripes, and Dad looks after them.
A male and female emu stay together for about five months while they court, build a nest and lay eggs. The nest is a flat platform of grass on the ground. The female lays about 5 to 15 large, dark green eggs, each as heavy as 10 to 12 chicken eggs.
Then she walks away, and the male does all the work. He sits on the eggs for about 55 days without eating or drinking, hardly ever leaving the nest. The chicks are cream with dark brown stripes, and they stay close to their father for months.
Pairs stay together for about five months of courtship, nest building and laying. The nest is a grass platform about 1 to 2 meters across; 5 to 15 dark bluish-green eggs, about 13 by 9 centimeters and 450 to 650 grams, are laid every two to four days. The female then leaves and may breed again with another male.
The male incubates alone for about 55 days (the Australian Museum) or eight weeks (San Diego Zoo), without drinking, feeding or leaving the nest, and can lose up to a third of his body weight. Striped chicks leave the nest within days. The Australian Museum says young stay with the male for about four months and leave at about six; San Diego Zoo gives up to 18 months. Emus are nearly fully grown at a year.
Booms, drums and long walks
Emus make deep booming and drumming sounds.
They make them with a special pouch in their throat. Other emus can hear them far away.
Emus have a stretchy pouch in the throat that they can fill with air. With it they make deep booming, drumming and grunting sounds that can be heard up to 2 kilometers away, mostly in the breeding season.
Emus usually live alone, though young birds stay with their father. When food runs out, many emus may travel together toward better feeding grounds. They are active in the daytime and are good swimmers too.
Booming, drumming and grunting calls are produced with an inflatable sac that is part of the windpipe and carry up to about 2 kilometers, mainly during courtship and breeding; a loud hiss warns off dingoes. Emus seen along fences and roads can look sociable, but the Australian Museum notes they are not really social, except for young birds that stay with their father.
San Diego Zoo adds that emus, usually solitary, can form very large flocks when moving toward better food. Defensive behavior includes kicking with heavy, clawed feet, and good eyesight and agility help them avoid danger.
Did you know?
Emu eggs are dark green, a bit like avocados.
Emu eggs are dark green and shiny, and one weighs as much as 10 to 12 chicken eggs.
Fresh eggs are dark bluish-green with paler green and white layers beneath; they lighten with exposure to the sun.
Emus and people
There are lots of emus in Australia.
They do not live near big cities anymore. But farmers' water troughs help them live in dry places.
Emus are listed as Least Concern, and the population is thought to be stable. They have disappeared from busy areas such as much of Australia's east coast, and the emus of Tasmania died out after Europeans arrived.
But people have also helped emus by accident. Water put out for farm animals in dry country has let emus live in places that used to be too dry. Drought and wildfires could still cause problems in the future.
The IUCN lists the emu as Least Concern (2018). The Tasmanian population became extinct soon after European settlement (around 1865, according to San Diego Zoo), as did two dwarf emus of Kangaroo Island and King Island, and the species is now absent from heavily populated regions, especially along the east coast.
Elsewhere, emu numbers may have increased since European settlement: the Australian Museum credits water provided for livestock, together with the emu's ability to breed rapidly, with favoring its survival. San Diego Zoo names drought and wildfires as potential threats. Emus are also farmed for meat, oil and leather.
IUCN Red List
How is the emu doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3
Amazing facts
-
Emu eggs are dark green, a bit like avocados.
Emu eggs are dark green and shiny, and one weighs as much as 10 to 12 chicken eggs.
Fresh eggs are dark bluish-green with paler green and white layers beneath; they lighten with exposure to the sun.
-
An emu can jump very high.
With its strong legs, an emu can jump about 2.1 meters straight up.
San Diego Zoo reports vertical jumps of about 7 feet (2.1 meters).
-
Emu booms can be heard far away.
An emu's booming call can be heard up to 2 kilometers away.
Booms produced in an inflatable neck sac carry up to about 2 kilometers.
-
Emus are good swimmers.
Emus are good swimmers and do not mind a dip in a pond or lake.
Despite their size, emus swim well, according to San Diego Zoo.
Words to know
- flightless
- not able to fly
- incubate
- to keep eggs warm until they hatch
- omnivore
- an animal that eats both plants and animals
- seed dispersal
- the spreading of seeds to new places
- nomadic
- moving from place to place instead of staying in one home
- precocial
- able to walk and move about soon after hatching
Discovery challenge
-
Who sits on the emu eggs?
Which emu parent sits on the eggs?
Which parent incubates emu eggs?
- The dad
- The mom
- Nobody
Show the answer
The dad
The dad sits on the eggs for about eight weeks.
The male sits on the eggs for about 55 days without eating or drinking.
The male incubates alone and fasts, losing up to a third of his body weight.
-
Where do wild emus live?
In which country do wild emus live?
Where is the emu's native range?
- Australia
- Canada
- Brazil
Show the answer
Australia
Emus live in Australia.
Wild emus live only in Australia.
The emu is found only in Australia, over most of the mainland.
-
How many toes does an emu have on each foot?
How many toes does an emu have on each foot?
How many toes does each emu foot have?
- Three
- One
- Five
Show the answer
Three
An emu has three toes on each foot.
Three toes, all pointing forward.
Three forward-facing toes and no hind toe.
-
What do emu feathers look like?
What do emu feathers look like?
Which describes the emu's feathers?
- Shaggy, like hair
- Bright red and stiff
- Smooth, like a fish's scales
Show the answer
Shaggy, like hair
Emu feathers look shaggy, like hair.
Their loose barbs do not hook together, so they look like hair.
Double-shafted feathers with widely spaced, hookless barbs give a hairlike look.
Places where you might see it
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe the emu's body features, including its feathers, legs and feet.
- Explain the father emu's role in incubating eggs and raising chicks.
- Describe how emus move to find food and water and how they spread seeds.
- Explain how people have both harmed and helped emus in Australia.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a bird that cannot fly need long, strong legs?
- What would it be like to sit still for eight weeks without eating?
- How can putting out water for farm animals change where wild animals live?
Try at home or in class
- Measure 2.1 meters up a wall and imagine an emu jumping that high from standing.
- Collect seeds from a fruit and plant them in a cup of soil to see how seeds spread by animals can grow.
Key vocabulary: flightless, incubate, omnivore, seed dispersal, nomadic, precocial
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Dromaius novaehollandiae (Emu), Red List global assessment 2018 , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Emu , Australian Museum
- Emu , San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 24, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.