The Wild Turkey

Its that time of year again, turkey time! (or Tofurky time depending on your preference) I would like to take the time today though to learn about the turkey before it's snuggled up next to the mashed potatoes.

The Wild Turkey was a very important food animal to Native Americans, but it was eliminated from much of its range by the early 1900s. Introduction programs have successfully established it in most of its original range, and even into areas where it never occurred before.

Adult Description
Large, dark ground-dwelling bird.
Long, powerful legs.
Large, fan-shaped tail.
Bare head and neck.
Short, slightly downcurved bill.
Tip of tail chestnut-brown (in East) or white (in Southwest).

Male Description
Breast feathers tipped with black. Head and neck blue-gray with pink wattles. During spring display, forehead white, face bright blue, neck scarlet. Spurs on legs. Beard long and obvious, larger on older birds.

Female Description
Breast feathers tipped with brown, gray, or white. Head with small feathers. Beard small, if present.

Cool Facts
- A native of North America, the turkey is one of only two domesticated birds originating in the New World. The Muscovy Duck is the other.
- The turkey was Benjamin Franklin's choice for the United States's national bird. The noble fowl was a favored food of Native Americans. When Europeans arrived, they made it one of only two domestic birds native to the Americas—the Muscovy duck shares the distinction.
- European explorers took Wild Turkeys to Europe from Mexico in the early 1500s. They were so successfully domesticated in Europe that English colonists brought them back with them when they settled on the Atlantic Coast. The domestic form has retained the white tail tip of the original Mexican subspecies, and that character can be used to distinguish wandering barnyard birds from wild turkeys which have chestnut-brown tail tips.
- The male Wild Turkey provides no parental care. When the eggs hatch, the chicks follow the female. She feeds them for a few days, but they quickly learn to feed themselves. Several hens and their broods may join up into bands of more than 30 birds. Winter groups have been seen to exceed 200.
- Attempts to use game farm turkeys for reintroduction programs failed. In the 1940s wild birds were caught and transported to new areas, where they quickly became established and flourished. Such transplantations have been responsible for the spread of the Wild Turkey to 49 states. (Alaska is the only U.S. state without turkeys.)

Habitat
Found in Open Woodland and hardwood forests with scattered openings, swamps, mesquite grassland, ponderosa pine, and chaparral.

Food
Omnivore, mostly feeding on acorns, nuts, seeds, fruits, insects, buds, fern fronds, salamanders.

Nesting Facts
average clutch Size of 4–17 eggs which are tan or buffy white, evenly marked with tiny reddish spots. The chicks are downy and able to follow mother. Their nest are described as a depression in dead leaves or vegetation on ground

Behavior
The male gobbles to attract females. When she appears, he struts around her. He has his tail fanned and held up vertically, lowers his wings so that the wingtips drag on the ground, raises the feathers on his back, throws his head back onto his back with the bill forward, and inflates his crop. He makes occasional deep "chump" sounds, followed by a low "humm," and accompanied by a rapid vibration of his tail feathers. During the strut his facial skin engorges and the colors intensify, especially the white forehead. Forages on ground in flocks. Scratches ground to uncover nuts.

Conservation
Populations dropped drastically in 19th and early 20th century because of hunting and habitat loss. Northeastern populations were eradicated. Stocking programs successfully reintroduced turkeys to most of eastern range, and to areas outside the ancestral range in West. Populations continue to increase.

Article courtesy of allaboutbirds.com



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