Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
Taxonomy
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Genus: Meleagris
Species: Meleagris gallopavo
Conservation Status in Idaho
Least Concern
Range and Habitat
Live in a variety of habitats across 49 US states, parts of Mexico, and parts of southern Canada.
- Open forests: With clearings, fields, pastures, and marshes nearby
- Coastal plains and piedmont: Along rivers, in swamps, and in areas with farms and plantations
- Appalachian and Cumberland plateaus: In mixed forests of oaks, pines, and hickory, and in swamps
- California: In a variety of landscapes, including deserts, coasts, forests, and the Sierras
Physical Features
The wild turkey is a large ground-dwelling bird that is 36-44 inches in length. It has a large, fan-shaped tail; long, stocky pink or gray legs; short, rounded wings; a bare head and neck and a small, down curving bill. The wild turkey has iridescent bronze body feathers and black and white bars on its wings.
The male wild turkey has a tuft of feathers called a beard on his chest and an upwardly curving spur on his lower legs. His breast feathers are tipped with black and he has a bluish-gray neck and a red wattle (a fleshy lobe of skin that hangs from the neck or chin.) The male’s bare head and neck is red, blue or white depending on the season!
The female’s breast feathers are tipped with brown, white or gray. She doesn’t have spurs and she usually doesn’t have a beard. she has a gray head and a feathered neck. Males are usually larger than females. In the east, the tip of the turkey’s tail is brown. In the Southwest the tail tip is white. The wild turkey’s call is a gobble!
Diet
Opportunistic foragers and can eat a wide variety of leaves, grass, seeds, berries, insects, worms, snails, frogs and small reptiles.
Lifespan
3-5 years in the wild; up to 10 years in captivity.
Reproduction
Wild turkeys mate in the early spring. The male wild turkey gobbles to attract a female. He fans out his tail, struts around the female and lowers his wings and drags the tips on the ground. The male’s gobble is so loud it can often be heard a mile away! The male mates with more than one female.
The female lays 8-15 buff-colored eggs in shallow depression on the ground that is hidden by brush, grass, vines or other vegetation. She incubates the eggs for 25-31 days. The chicks or poults are covered with down at birth and leave the nest shortly after hatching. The chicks are precocial and feed themselves shortly after birth. The male poults stay with their mother through the fall. Female poults remain with their mother until the nest spring.
Social Behavior and Interaction
The wild turkey is one of only two North American birds that has been domesticated! The other is the Muscovy duck. By the end of the 19th century, the wild turkey had been hunted almost to extinction in much of its original range. Today, the wild turkey has been re-established in much of its original range.
If Benjamin Franklin had had his way, the wild turkey would have been the symbol of the United States instead of the bald eagle. He thought the wild turkey was more dignified than the eagle!
Major Threats
Predators like coyotes, snakes, and skunks, as well as domestic dogs and urbanization.