Emu Coloring Pages

Free Emu coloring pages: 36 printable PDF designs featuring Australia’s towering flightless bird in portrait, ready-to-print, and Australian-themed styles. Each page can be downloaded as a PDF to print or colored online in the browser.

The emu, scientifically known as Dromaius novaehollandiae, is native to Australia and is the second-tallest living bird in the world, standing up to 6.2 feet tall and weighing as much as 100 pounds, surpassed in height only by the ostrich. Despite its size, the emu is flightless, with tiny wings just under 8 inches long hidden beneath its shaggy, coarse feathers, but it makes up for this with remarkable speed, sprinting up to 30 miles per hour thanks to powerful legs and calf muscles unique among birds. Emus are omnivores, eating grasses, seeds, fruit, and insects across the open habitats of the Australian outback, and they are also strong swimmers, something many people do not expect from such a large land bird. One of the emu’s more unusual traits is its reversed parenting role: after the female lays a clutch of large, dark green eggs, the male alone incubates them for about eight weeks and then raises the chicks. The emu holds a proud place in Australian culture, appearing alongside the kangaroo on the country’s coat of arms, a pairing chosen partly because neither animal can walk backward.

This collection groups its 36 designs into classic portraits, ready-to-print pages, cute and stylized takes, and pages set against Australian scenery, giving colorists a wide range of ways to capture this remarkable bird.

What Is Inside This Collection

The 36 Emu pages are split into four natural groups based on pose, purpose, and setting.

Classic Portraits

This group covers straightforward standing and close-up poses that keep the emu’s long neck, small head, and shaggy feather texture as the clear focal point. A muted gray-brown base across the body pairs well with a darker gray for the bare skin visible around the face and neck.

Ready-to-Print Pages

These are the simplified, larger-outline designs built for quick printing sessions, labeled with terms like Printable, Free, and Simple. Bigger body shapes and fewer feather details make this group especially suited to younger colorists just learning to color within the lines.

Cute and Stylized Takes

This set leans into softer, rounder proportions and playful art styles, including a mandala-style design and looser cartoon treatments. These pages trade some of the emu’s rangy, long-legged realism for a friendlier, more approachable look.

Australian Wildlife Scenes

This group places the emu within its native Australian setting, alongside the national flag, other animals, or its own eggs and chicks. These pages give colorists room to add background color and detail while keeping the emu’s shaggy brown plumage as the visual anchor.

What Emu Coloring Pages Do

Practicing texture over sharp outlines. Unlike birds with smooth feathers or crisp wing patterns, the emu’s plumage is famously shaggy and hair-like, almost fur-like in appearance, rather than the layered look most bird feathers have. Coloring this texture calls for looser, more varied strokes instead of clean, even fill-ins, giving children practice with a different kind of mark-making than a typical bird page requires.

Learning an unusual parenting story. The American Academy of Pediatrics identifies fine motor skill development as a core benefit of structured coloring for children ages 2 through 7, and pages like Emu with Eggs offer a natural pause point for that benefit alongside a genuinely surprising fact: it is the male emu, not the female, who incubates the eggs and raises the chicks alone, a detail that often surprises kids and opens an easy conversation about parenting roles across different animal species.

Connecting size to speed. Despite standing taller than most adult humans, emus can sprint nearly as fast as a car on a residential street. Working through a full-body emu pose, from its long neck down to its powerful legs, gives children a chance to notice how its build, long legs, small wings, and tall stance are suited for running rather than flying, turning the coloring page into a small lesson in animal anatomy.

A steady, grounding calm. A 2005 study in the Art Therapy Journal documented measurable reductions in anxiety following structured coloring sessions. The repeated shaggy feather strokes and open, uncluttered backgrounds on many of these pages give children an easy, low-pressure rhythm to settle into during that focused time.

How to Color Emu Pages Well

• Body feathers: Use a muted Gray Brown or Umber for most of the shaggy body, applying loose, varied strokes rather than flat, even color to capture the coarse, hair-like feather texture.
• Face and neck: Color the bare skin around the face and upper neck in a darker Blue Gray or Charcoal, since this area is famously less feathered than the rest of the body.
• Legs: Use a warm Tan or light Brown for the long, powerful legs, adding a slightly darker shade at the knee joints to suggest their strength.
• Eyes: Fill the eyes in black with a small white highlight, keeping the expression calm and alert.
• Eggs: On pages showing eggs, color them a deep, dark Green rather than white or brown, matching the emu’s genuinely unusual egg color.
• Australian scenery: On pages with the Australian flag or outback backdrop, use warm ochre and dusty red tones for the ground to echo the look of the Australian outback, where emus roam.

5 Creative Craft Ideas With Emu Coloring Pages

1. Coat of arms craft

Pair a colored Emu with the Australian Flag page with a printed or drawn kangaroo to recreate the pairing found on Australia’s coat of arms.

2. Egg-color surprise card

Color an Emu with Eggs page and use it to introduce the fact that emu eggs are dark green, then have kids guess other unusual animal egg colors.

3. Speed comparison poster

Pair a colored emu page with a handwritten fact about its 30 mph sprint speed compared to other fast animals, for a simple animal-speed poster.

4. Bird bookmark

Cut out a colored classic portrait page, glue it to cardstock, and trim close to the outline for a durable bookmark.

5. Ratite family chart

Color the Emu Ostrich page alongside handwritten notes comparing emus, ostriches, and other flightless ratites like the cassowary and kiwi.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Emu coloring pages?

Emu coloring pages are free printable and online designs featuring Australia’s large flightless bird in different poses and settings, including classic portraits, ready-to-print pages, cute and stylized takes, and Australian wildlife scenes. This collection includes 36 designs that can be downloaded as PDFs or colored directly in the browser.

How big is an emu?

Emus are the second-tallest living bird after the ostrich, standing up to 6.2 feet tall and weighing as much as 100 pounds. They are native to Australia and are the largest bird found there.

Can emus fly?

No. Emus are flightless birds with tiny wings, less than 8 inches long, hidden beneath their shaggy feathers. Instead of flying, they rely on powerful legs to sprint at speeds up to 30 miles per hour.

What do emus eat?

Emus are omnivores that eat a varied diet of grasses, seeds, fruit, and insects, foraging across the open habitats of the Australian outback.

Which parent takes care of emu eggs and chicks?

Unusually among birds, the male emu is solely responsible for incubating the eggs, a process that takes about eight weeks, and for raising the chicks once they hatch. At the same time, the female typically moves on after laying the clutch.

Why is the emu on Australia’s coat of arms?

The emu appears alongside the kangaroo on Australia’s coat of arms, a pairing often explained by the fact that neither animal can walk backward, symbolically representing a nation that only moves forward.

Are Emu coloring pages suitable for young children?

Yes. The simplified, ready-to-print pages and cute, stylized designs work well for toddlers and young children. In contrast, the detailed portrait and Australian scenery pages give older kids and bird enthusiasts more intricate options to color as well.

How many Emu coloring pages are available to download?

This collection includes 36 designs, covering classic portraits, ready-to-print pages, cute and stylized takes, and Australian wildlife scenes. Every page can be downloaded as a free PDF or colored online.

Start Coloring

Download any page by clicking the design. No account, email, or payment is required. Pages print directly from the browser at full resolution or open in the online coloring tool for screen use. Share finished pages on Facebook or Pinterest with the share buttons at the top of each design page.