The Emu Lied to Me. It's Not an Ostrich

10/4/2015

Ostrich, left, has two toes. Emu, center, has three toes. Bird on our deck has three toes. That's really all I know.

The statue swore to me that it was an ostrich, but Brian Savin wondered if it was an emu.
I looked it up. Emus have three toes and ostriches have two toes. (Ostriches are also bigger. Who knew?)

http://www.differencebetween.net/science/nature/difference-between-emu-and-ostrich/

The bird my wife found at Home Goods has three toes.

Both birds' meat is red rather than white. At first, I thought maybe the emu was claiming it was an ostrich to avoid being eaten, but apparently both are eaten.
Either way, the bird on our back deck took a fearsome barrage of acorns in recent days.
We will take it inside for the winter, along with the stork and the penguin, also from Home Goods.

4 Comments

Brian Savin

10/4/2015 11:35:37 am

I turned on the tube this morning and found my only TV program, Sunday Morning, was displaced by the Jets in London. I like the Jets, but in the afternoon. They've got two big birds themselves in wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker, with about the same characteristic differences as the ostrich and emu. One a bit bigger and runs a run faster, the other has the extra toe for mobility and quick slot turns. I think I'll nickname them Grief and Glory. Marshall (the ostrich) does all the hard work getting the team down field. He's Grief. With Marshall triple teamed in the end zone, Decker (the emu) get's to score the touchdowns weaving through crowds in the end zone.. He's Glory.

By the way, the Millbrook School, in Millerton, NY, is the only secondary school in the country to have its own zoo, and it's great. In addition to a lemur house (best visited around Halloween given their screams) they have a large number of emu. No ostrich.