Wild Turkey
Wild Turkeys live year-round in open woods in most of the eastern and southeastern United States, as well as isolated areas of the Great Plains, Rockies, California and the Pacific Northwest. Largely through human-managed introduction programs, the range of the species has been expanding steadily westward and northward. Wild Turkeys have also been widely introduced in Europe, New Zealand and Hawaii.
Wild Turkey Range Map

The diet of Wild Turkeys consists mostly of seeds, nuts, and buds, but they also consume insects, insect larvae, snails, and small amphibians and reptiles. Diet varies by season and region; in much of their range in fall and winter, they tend to eat mostly acorns. Wild Turkeys forage on the ground in flocks, scratching at the ground with their feet. Wild Turkeys swallow their food whole; they also consume much grit, which helps grind food in the bird's gizzard.

They travel by walking on the ground, but can also run rather swiftly. Despite their great mass—up to 23 pounds or more for males—they are strong short-distance fliers. They take to the air with a few steps, a few hops, then a leap; they can ascend quite steeply if necessary. They can fly for a maximum distance of about one mile. In flight, Wild Turkeys can attain speeds as high as 60 miles per hour. Wild Turkeys can also swim, extending their necks and paddling with their legs.

The social behavior of the species is highly complex. During the nonbreeding season, adult males form their own bands. Adult females and their male and female offspring stay together in separate bands, which sometimes come together in flocks numbering more than 200 birds. Within flocks, dominance hierarchies prevail, separately for males and females; hierarchies within male flocks show rankings by group as well as by individual.

Sex-segregated flocks break up and courtship begins in late January in the southern states, and in late February in the north. At this time, individual males or small bands of males associate with about four females (often called “harems”); females leave the group after copulation to nest alone. Meanwhile, subordinate males in bands frequently engage in copulation attempts with inanimate objects, most often with deposits of dried cow dung.

Spectacular in appearance in all seasons, mature male Wild Turkeys are especially striking during the breeding season, when their snoods (protruding growths on the base of the upper bill) are extended and the color of facial skin is especially bright. Males court females by uttering gobbling calls, and by strutting, with tail fanned open, back feathers fluffed high, and throat bulging forward.

The female Wild Turkey creates the nest, which is a wide, shallow depression on the ground. Clutches generally include about 10 to 12 eggs, with fewer eggs on average in the southern reaches of the species' range. Upon hatching, Wild Turkey chicks (young turkeys are commonly called “poults”) can walk and run within 24 hours. The hen and her brood remain together for about a year, whereupon male poults leave to join independent male bands.

Description: Wild Turkeys are very large terrestrial fowl; adult males measure about 45 inches in length, and females about 36 inches. Body mass averages greater in colder climates. Plumage of back, wings, and underparts is dark and iridescent. Females in the eastern United States show rufous tips on body feathers, and those in the Rocky Mountains, the southwestern United States, and Mexico show white tips. Head is bare, with rough bluish skin; male has a snood projecting above the bill, as well as a red dewlap (throat wattle). Males and some females have a tuft of long, coarse feathers (a “beard”) hanging from the upper breast. Legs are long, bare, and rather thick; males have sharp spurs on their lower legs. Tail is rufous and finely barred in eastern Wild Turkeys, and white-tipped in those of the Rockies, the southwest, and Mexico.

Voice: Wild Turkeys have a diverse repertoire of clucks, yelps, hisses, rattles, and purrs. Breeding males utter familiar gobbling calls, often simultaneously with each other.




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