Australia has lots of birds (about 800 species) and amongst them are a few bigger ones that we wanted to see, most famously the flightless emu Dromaius novaehollandiae. Here is one we found messing about:

 

 

Emus are a bit smaller than ostriches which they clearly resemble and they’re quite widespread in Australia, particularly in the Outback. Their lineage is ancient, and it’s obviously no coincidence that all the southern lands contain large flightless birds: Australia has the emu and the cassowary, Africa the ostrich, NZ had moas, Madagascar had Elephant Birds and South America still has rheas – but their ancestry is a real puzzle. Clearly the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana is in the picture somewhere, but it’s more complicated than might at first appear. Kiwis for instance have recently been shown genetically to be most closely related to the extinct Madagascan Elephant Birds, and must have flown to NZ before becoming flightless, while ostriches originated in India after Gondwana split up, rode India until it collided with Asia, got off and walked round to Africa where they are now found. Zoogeography is fascinating! (to me, anyway, and it’s my Blog).

 

And here is another biggish bird, the Australian Bustard Ardeotis australis hurrying off into a canefield:

 

 

Enough birds for a while.