I went sketching with the Sydney sketch meet up group at the Australian Museum. After drawing dinosaurs all morning, I sketched an emu in the afternoon.
The Emu is found only in Australia. It lives throughout most of the continent, ranging from coastal regions to high in the Snowy Mountains.
The Emu is Australia's tallest native bird, reaching between 1.6 m and 1.9 m when standing erect. Adult Emus are covered with shaggy grey-brown feathers except for the neck and head, which are largely naked and bluish-black. It does not fly ,but the legs are long and powerful., Their powerful legs give them great speed, some running up to 50 km per hour. At full pace, an emu's stride can measure up to 3 m. (See http://australianmuseum.net.au/Emu)
I have only seen Emus running along roadsides, near fences out in the country .
Beautiful job, Alissa, he looks so alive!
ReplyDeleteGreat job capturing it's expression!
ReplyDeleteYou've captured it exactly.
ReplyDeleteAmazing that you've seen this bird - does it ever get hit by cars?
ReplyDeleteYes, I have only seen one or two though. It would have been when I was a child, travelling out west on family holidays. They were running along the roadside. I know that sometimes they zig zag when they run and I have seen news articles about them running into cars and causing accidents. They would do an awful lot of damage ( they are a bit smaller than an ostrich). Maybe someone from the country they could tell you a few more stories. I am a bit of a city girl
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