The emu is the Australian bird that lays large dark-green eggs.
Emu eggs are among the most recognizable eggs in the world because their shells are a deep green to blue-green colour. The colour comes from pigments deposited in the shell, with the outer surface generally darker than the inside.
A female emu usually lays several eggs in a nest on the ground. After laying, she leaves incubation and most parental care to the male. The male sits on the clutch for roughly eight weeks, eating little and relying on stored body fat while he incubates the eggs.
Emus are Australia’s largest native birds and the world’s second-tallest living birds after ostriches. Their eggs are sometimes confused with cassowary eggs, but cassowary eggs are typically greenish rather than the emu’s distinctive dark bottle-green.