Lifestyle

Three Wild Turkeys

By Tom Dennis

Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo

 I know, writing about Wild Turkeys just before Thanksgiving is just too predictable however, I hope you learn that they are much more than holiday fare.  Several years ago I was canoeing the Black River in Beards Hill with my friend Todd and a boy he was mentoring, when a small flock of Wild Turkeys flew over.  When I pointed them out, the boy promptly stated “those aren’t turkeys, everyone knows they don’t fly”.  Thus began an impromptu lesson in the best place to learn, the outdoor classroom. Let’s read on about this interesting native bird.

Photo credit: Laurie Dennis

The Wild Turkey is one of our largest birds with males tipping the scales at over 16 pounds and females just over 9 pounds.  The birds are beautifully colored with dark-grey and chestnut-brown bodies showing iridescent green on the back and breast.  Adult males, called toms or gobblers, have a featherless head and neck that is blue to red with throat “wattles” and a fleshy growth called a snood on the head.  Special feathers form a beard that is short on young males called jakes who also lack the longer tail feathers that allow breeding males to show the fan-tail display.  The birds are strong runners but their large wings, spanning up to 64 inches, carry them well on short-distance flights, including to trees for roosting.  A sharp hind toe spike is a formidable defense weapon.  Displaying males give the familiar gobble call and females have a repertoire of soft clucks, “tuk”, and whining “yike, yike” calls.

The Wild Turkey is one of only two domesticated birds originating in the New World. European explorers took them to Europe from Mexico in the 1500’s and domestication was so successful that English colonists brought them back when they settled on the Atlantic Coast.  The name Turkey was given by the English when birds were imported from farms in southeastern Europe.  The six subspecies of Wild Turkeys were in grave danger of extinction due to over-hunting and habitat destruction and by the 1930’s the population reached a low of 30,000.  Thanks to conservation and reintroduction efforts the birds now range throughout most of the United States and into Canada with a population of over 7 million individuals.

Contrary to folk-lore, turkeys aren’t dumb.  They are intelligent, wily, and have a well-established social structure.  Also, I hope you aren’t disappointed in the fact that Benjamin Franklin didn’t propose them as the National Bird however, he did write in a personal letter that it is “a much more respectable bird” than the Bald Eagle.  While we’re on facts, did you know (or care) that a turkey’s gender can be determined by its droppings?  Males produce spiral-shaped poop and the females’ is shaped like the letter “J”; I’ll bet you didn’t know they could spell.

Young turkeys (poults), eat insects, berries, and seeds and adult birds are omnivorous, stuffing themselves (sorry, couldn’t resist) with acorns, nuts, berries, insects, and occasionally small reptiles and amphibians.  In closing, I would like to thank Austin Nichols and his hunting friends who branded Wild Turkey, a pretty darn good Kentucky Bourbon.  Happy Thanksgiving and remember to check out Bluewater Audubon on Facebook and watch for the Winter Bird Blast coming in February.

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