Oct. 9, 2022 - Australia - Big Birds

I saw several species of large birds during my trip to Australia. This flightless bird is called a Southern Cassowary. It can be up to six feet tall. The sources I looked up seem to differ wildly when giving the weight of a Cassowary. I’ve seen figures from 100 to 190 pounds. It has large, powerful legs. Each foot has three toes with long, sharp claws on the end. We saw this bird walking along the road, so we stopped our van to take photos.

CassowarySouthernEttyBayQweensland20220913

Here’s a close-up view of a different Cassowary. Note the bright blue and red neck, the red wattles, and the hard knob on top of the head. Females are larger and more brightly colored than males. This one was at Etty Bay in Queensland. They are normally shy birds but this one was so acclimated to humans that it walked up to a picnic table and stole half a watermelon from the picnickers.

CassowarySouthernEttyBayQweensland20220913

The Australian Bustard is a three to four foot tall bird that prefers open country. It can be found over most of Australia.

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This male Bustard was displaying far from the road. This is still a good enough photo to show how he puffs out his neck feathers during his display.

BustardAustralianEastMaryRoadQweensland20220918

Another very large, flightless bird found in Australia is the Emu. It has a shaggy body, long neck, powerful legs, and three toes on each foot. It can be up to 6½ feet tall and weigh up to 100 pounds.

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After the female Emu lays her eggs, the male takes over and does all the incubating. When the chicks hatch, he watches over them until they are old enough to be on their own. This male is shown with two of the four juveniles that were with him.

EmuwithyoungRoadDalbyQweensland20220922

We had a fleeting glimpse of some very young Emus. This is not a great photo, but it shows the striped plumage of the babies.

EmuyoungRoadDalbyQweensland20220922

This is not a wild bird, but this male Peacock greeted us as we pulled up to the Granite Gorge Nature Park in Queensland. He didn’t fan out his tail, but if he had, that would have been a spectacular photo.

PeacockmaleGraniteGorgeNatureParkQweensland20220916

The female Peacock is not as colorful as the male.

PeacockfemaleGraniteGorgeNatureParkQweensland20220916

The Black-necked Stork is the only stork found in Australia. It is four feet tall and has a wingspan of 6½ feet. This one was on a mound of dirt in a field and gave us plenty of time to get photos.

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It fluffed up its wings a few times.

StorkBlackneckedCatanaWetlandsAreaQweensland20220918

Eventually, as it was getting dark, the stork flew off.

StorkBlackneckedflightCatanaWetlandsAreaQweensland20220918