Size

• The flightless emu can stand as tall as 5 or 6 feet, with the average emu weighing between 90 and 120 lbs. While the bird has wings, they are more for courtship displays and balance than anything else. The emu can run at speeds as high as 40 miles an hour, helped by strides that measure as long as 9 feet.
  
  

Geography

• The emu's range spans the Australian continent, with populations of the bird showing up in habitats that include sandy coastal dunes, the drier plains located inland, tropical forests and scrublands. The emu is an accomplished swimmer and the bird likes to be able to find water and/or mud in which to flop around and play.
  
  

Diet

• The emu's diet includes various types of fruits and seeds. The bird will eat the tender young growth on plants and also pursue and gobble down insects. Emus have a habit of swallowing small stones, which helps to grind up what it eats before the food matter goes into the rest of the bird's digestive system. Emus can drink up to 4 gallons of water per day.
  
  

Emu Eggs

• The female emu is capable of producing eggs as early as its 18th month, but most do not start to lay eggs until they are from two to three years of age. The female can have a laying career that spans as many as 35 years. The emu breeds in Australia from October through April, with the female producing as many as 50 eggs that need from 48 days to 52 days to hatch. The male is the one that incubates the eggs, and then he will watch the young emus for as long as six months.
  
  

Young Emus

• The black- and white-striped emu chick can be 10 inches tall at birth, but by the time it is three months old, it has taken on a nearly all-black coloring. As time wears on the young emu begins to change to its adult colors, consisting of a combination of black, tan and brown, with the neck acquiring a bluish tint. While the adult emu can handle temperatures as high as 100 degrees F, the youngsters normally will require some sort of shelter in the form of brush or trees to protect them from the elements.