Wild Turkey

It's turkey season! Since thanksgiving is right around the corner I thought that it would be good to inform everyone about the beautiful, majestic, and spectacular Wild Turkey! A male Wild Turkey is or a Gobbler weighs between 11 and 24 pounds. while females weigh 5 to 11 pounds. A Gobbler is 39 to 49 inches in length and they stand 4 feet tall. Females are 30 to 37 inches in length and stand 3 feet tall. A record sized adult male according to the National wild turkey federation weighed 37 pounds! The wing span of this beautiful bird ranges from 4 feet 1 inches long to 4 feet 9 inches long. The colors can range between between white, gray, brown, or black. Wild Turkeys live all across North America they live in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico. The Wild Turkey is a quick and agile flyer. They may fly below a forest canopy or they may fly to try and find a perch to rest on. Wild turkeys have terrible eye sight and often don't see a predator until it is to late. This means they rely on every other sense to keep themselves alive and well. Wild Turkeys are omnivorous they feed on acorns, nuts, Hazel, chestnut, hickory, amphibians, reptiles, juniper, bearberry, buds, and leaves. Turkeys will occasionally forge with deer and squirrels. Predators of the eggs are raccoons, Virginia Opossum, red foxes, gray foxes, ground hogs, pine snakes, and other reptile species. Other predators include bald eagles, red tailed hawks, white tail hawks, and harris hawks. Great horned owls, American goshawks, coyotes, lynx, bobcats, domestic dogs, cats, golden eagles, American alligators, Pumas, and the black bear are other predators to the wild turkey. Wild turkey males try and mate with as many females as possible and they do this by using the bright display of tail feathers to attract females. I hope you enjoyed learning about the iconic and well known Wild turkey.