aussiebirder

My wife and I recently visited and explored the arid wild west outback region of our state from Broken Hill to Cameron Corner, where NSW, South Australia and Queensland state borders meet. We took the 14 hour Silver City Express train journey inland to Broken Hill from Sydney and the one week Silver City Tour of Broken Hill, Menindee Lakes, White Cliffs, Tibooburra and the Corner Country. Though it was not a birding tour we did see some birds and one lifer. A feature of our journey was the many occasions we sighted Emu families by the roadside with young at various stages of development.

Emus breed during Winter months and now we are in Spring their new season young are running behind their father. The mother lays the large green eggs and the father incubates them for about 60 days and then trains and protects the chicks for the next 18 months, while the mother goes off to further breed and explore. Emus are our largest flightless bird and are able to survive the harsh dry hot arid environment. The juvenile chick has dark stripes and is usually in a clutch of 8 to 12 though the father below appears to have lost many to predation, which may include raptors, of which are numerous out there. Click on image to enlarge it.

The male has a distinct blue neck. Their main predators are dingo packs and humans. One thing in their favour is that they can escape their pursuers with their powerful legs running up to 50 km/hour or more. One we encountered was keeping up with our bus doing 60, and fitted well to Henri Mancini’s ‘Baby Elephant Walk’. They can run for an extended time when chased and so outrun and exhaust their would be predator. They also can use their sharp claws and hard beak to injure opponents.

In the second edition of my first book ‘What Birds Teach Us’ the Emu is showcased to help us realise our abilities and personal full potential. We need to encourage our children, as well as ourselves to Realize, research and develop areas of skill and achievement we are most gifted at, and then improve ourselves in these areas and not compare ourselves with others. We need to appreciate and have a positive view of our uniqueness and personal contribution to our family and community. This book is an excellent Christmas present for any age as it encourages strong character building skills in a positive encouraging approach using our amazing Aussie birds. Click on the image below and purchase here securely online. You will also be able to purchase this book in the Broken Hill Visitor Centre from next week.

In Spring and Summer Emus graze on leaves, native fruit, flowers, insects and seeds and in Autumn and Winter on grass, insects and herbs. They can reach high to access leaves from bushes. They only need to drink once a day, and when they do they drink as much as they can to last them through the arid dry hot day of the outback.

You can appreciate in the image above how well these birds blend into their red brown environment of the Gibber plains and savanna lands of the outback. I was delighted to see another creature which also matched its environment, a Kangaroo we never see east of the ranges. We usually see the Grey Kangaroo, which blends with our grey dark soils, but in the outback the Big Red Kangaroo is featured, and we saw plenty of these. As you can see they blend in well with the red soils. These creatures are the largest Australian marsupials and can stand between 1.8 and 2 metres tall.

But the highlight for us was this lifer the Red-backed Kingfisher which has its habitat in this arid region. Here are the few shots we had of this bird. Thankfully my wife managed to photograph the bird’s diagnostic back photo, and I shot the frontal shots. Notice the diagnostic wavy hairdo also.

There were of course many other birds but these are for starters. We were amazed at how many common House Sparrows were in all the towns. Of course these introduced birds came on the ships from England but have thrived well here. Our native Noisy Miners drove them out of Sydney and the surrounding areas years ago.

Have a wonderful week and enjoy the birds !

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Adv. Dip. in Counselling and Family Therapy.

Member of Birdlife Australia

To introduce people to our unique Australian birds,

And learn from them how to live a healthy and happy life.

NOTE: All photos, videos and music used on this website are photographed, composed, performed  by the site owner and remains his copyrighted property, unless otherwise stated. The use of any material that is not original material of the site owner is duly acknowledged as such. © W. A. Hewson 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025.