Hip, Hip Hooray for our almost national bird — the Wild Turkey.
This bird, often a subject of derision, is a true survivor. The Wild Turkey population dropped to a low of 200,000 before conservation programs in the 1900s brought them back. It wasn’t Thanksgiving dinner that almost wiped them out — they were originally hunted for their tail feathers which were highly prized for hats and decor. Originally inhabiting the much of the US east of the Rockies, more than 6.5 million turkeys now inhabit the North American continent to include most of the continuous US, parts of Canada and northern Mexico.
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They are smart and have adapted well to urbanization and an ever changing environment. I have even seen a small flock on the grounds of the California State Capitol strutting their stuff near the west steps, the site of many protests.
Here are some fun turkey facts — thanks to US Fish and Wildlife, the Smithsonian, the National Wild Turkey Federation and Wikipedia.
Turkeys are large North American game birds and there are 2 species: American Wild Turkey and his really flashy cousin, the Mexican Ocellated Wild Turkey. In the wild the males can weigh 16 to 20 pounds and the hens are much smaller weighing only 8 to 12 pounds. They are fast running up to 20 MPH on the ground and flying as fast as 50 MPH in the air. They have incredible hearing, that weird head tilt you sometimes see is to help them triangulate a potential danger based on sound.
They are an ancient species, living well before the Woolly Mammoths and Sabertooth Tigers. In fact, according to the University of Illinois, Wild Turkeys evolved almost 10 million years ago.
Male turkeys are called Tom or Gobblers but both the males and hens gobble as well as cluck like a chicken, purr like a cat and make a number of other calls.
They all have red fleshy appendages called a snood and wattle. Toms also have a beard of feathers on their chest and grow long spurs. The longer the snood on a male, the more attractive he is to the hens.
The hens lay a clutch of 10-14 eggs in a grassy nest on the ground which hatch in approx 28 days. The chicks are primarily insectivores for the first 4 weeks. Then, they join their parents as omnivores eating seeds, grasses, berries, insects and even small mammals and reptiles.
In Spanish, they are called Pavo, but my Mexican grandmother always called them Guacalotes which is Nahuatl a Mexican Indian language. I like that word because it sounds so much worse to call somebody a Guacalote than plain ordinary Turkey.
Here are a couple of more turkey pics for today.
Let’s not forget the other turkey many of us see in the skies above us.
Feel free to add your own photos and additional turkey trivia in comments.
Have a great holiday weekend whether you have a turkey on your dinner table or not!