While an adult Wild Turkey’s face isn’t very appealing, I think these youngsters are kinda cute. And though their faces are pretty plain, their feathers improve their appearance.
Once widely found in North America, their populations were severely reduced by the early 1900′s by both hunting and because the forests that were their favorite habitat were cut down to make room for farm fields. They are again found in many areas where they had disappeared, plus areas where they had never been seen before, as a result of reintroduction efforts by wildlife agencies. They are currently found throughout most of the eastern and midwest U.S. but only in some parts of the west and only a few areas in Canada.
Since males do not take part in raising his offspring we know that the parent birds above are moms.
I imagine many are aware that the Wild Turkey was almost the national bird of the United States instead of the Bald Eagle. Benjamin Franklin was upset that Congress declared the Bald Eagle as the national bird as it thought it was “a Bird of bad moral Character.”
Did you know that Wild Turkeys roost in tall trees?
Do you have Wild Turkeys in your area?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I didn’t know they roosted in trees! It seems like they are a heavy bird to do that. I haven’t seen wild turkeys here, but the babies are very cute! Don’t they look like chicks?
Hi Cheery,
Yes the babies do look like chicks but larger.
These guys are very awkward when they fly up into trees, it takes a long time for them to get settled as they often knock into each other when they land. But as big and relatively heavy as they are, they can indeed fly and fly up into large cottonwoods.
We’ve had families of wild turkeys for the past several years. This year we have 2 families. It’s so much fun watching the little ones grow. They tend to gather around the bird feeders and eat the sunflower seeds that the birds drop. Plus we give them cracked corn. My husband saw a couple of deer this week along with the turkeys. It felt like Wild Kingdom!
Hello Janice,
I enjoy watching these guys too. The parents, like most bird species, are very protective of their young and I wouldn’t want to go up against an adult turkey.
We have one to several turkeys visit our yard each year. The Rooster comes and looks things over, then the hens come. After breeding and the hens have found a nesting sight the Rooster leaves. One hen had two nests this year. One was in an overgrown area of our yard near the house. I was able to watch her daily on the nest and see the chicks as they hatched. She stepped on one and killed it. The others were lost also. She did not raise any chicks out of either batch. She layed ten eggs in the second batch in late July. Some years we have watched the chicks learn to fly. They can go up at least 10 feet using branches to fly from one to the other. We have forested and open property. In winter they go to an area with horses and meet several other turkeys. Most we have seen die are from cars crossing the road or chicks and cats or other wild animals.
Hello Sandy,
Wow, you are fortunate to have a nest site close enough to watch and see the chicks hatch.
You may be aware that young hens often lose many/most chicks due to inexperience and it sounds like the one hen of yours who lost all her chicks may be a new mother. If so, practice does help so maybe next year she will be more successful.
It is sad that so many birds including Wild Turkeys are killed as a result of humans (especially cars and domestic cats).