Wild Turkey
Meleagris gallopavo
Summary 5
General description: The wild turkey is a big black or gray bird with a round body and tiny head. Males, called gobblers, have a tail that, when spread, looks like a large fan.
Length: About 3 feet, with a 4-foot wingspan.
Weight: 10 to 25 pounds.
Color: Males are mostly dark brown and black, and have a red head, neck, and wattle (the fleshy growth that hangs beneath the chin). Hens are brownish gray.
Sounds: An assortment of yelps, gobbles, purrs, putts, and other calls.
Reproduction
Turkeys mate from April to May. Hens lay 10 to 12 eggs, which hatch in about 28 days. The young, called poults, are able to fly in three or four weeks, but they stay with their mother up to four months.
Food
Turkeys eat almost anything they can catch, including ferns, grasses, grain, buds, berries, insects, acorns, and even frogs and snakes.
Predators
Great-horned owls, eagles, coyotes and foxes.
Habitat and range
Open wooded areas, brushy grasslands, and river bottoms. Wild turkeys are found throughout Minnesota as far north as Detroit Lakes and Brainerd. Heaviest concentrations are in southeastern Minnesota.
Population and management
Minnesota's wild turkey population is expanding north and west. The state has spring and fall hunting seasons, which have become very popular. Hunting is regulated to allow the wild turkey population to continue growing.
Fun facts
Wild turkeys form flocks of six to 40 birds that roost in trees each evening. In 1782, the turkey lost by a single vote to the bald eagle to become the national bird.
Identification 6
The body feathers on males, regardless of their age, have black tips and a shiny, iridescent sheen. A hen’s body feathers have buff
tips and a dull, dusky finish. From a distance, males look big, shiny, and black, while hens look smaller, drab, and brown. Turkeys do not molt all their tail feathers in the first year of life. A juvenile bird’s central tail feathers are longer than its
outer tail feathers. When a jake, or juvenile male, displays his fan, the central tail feathers stick up an inch or two above the
rest of the fan. A hen’s head is typically dull gray or blue in color. Males’ heads can appear bright blue, red, or white, depending on their level of excitement. In spring, a male’s head is generally bright red. When he’s in full strut, the top of his head turns white. When a strutting male walks toward you, his head looks like a softball against his fanned-out tail.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wild_Turkey/id
Behavior 7
Turkeys travel in flocks and search on the ground for nuts, berries, insects, and snails. They use their strong feet to scratch leaf litter out of the way. In early spring, males gather in clearings to perform courtship displays. They puff up their body feathers, flare their tails into a vertical fan, and strut slowly while giving a characteristic gobbling call. At night, turkeys fly up into trees to roost in groups.
Information from allaboutbirds.org
Habitat 7
Wild Turkeys live in mature forests, particularly nut trees such as oak, hickory, or beech, interspersed with edges and fields. You may also see them along roads and in woodsy backyards. After being hunted out of large parts of their range, turkeys were reintroduced and are numerous once again.
Information from allaboutbirds.org
Sources and Credits
- (c) Per Verdonk, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.flickr.com/photos/7551546@N08/3038308796
- (c) Steve Hofhine, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Steve Hofhine
- (c) Steve, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Steve
- (c) Michael Jacobi, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Michael Jacobi
- (c) Minnesota Scientific and Natural Areas, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/1172430
- (c) ShawnT Dash, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/862095
- (c) bubolzpreserve, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/974269
