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| Juvenile birds mature quickly. By their fifth month, the juvenile male (jake) and juvenile female (jenny) closely resemble adult birds. However, juveniles have darker legs, which turn pink as the birds age. Jakes make feeble gobbles, higher in pitch than the calls of mature toms. Their beards are shorter in length and usually have amber-colored tips. With its powerful legs, the wild turkey is an exceptional runner, and has been clocked at speeds up to 12 mph. Although strong short-distance fliers, turkeys usually run when threatened. When necessary for escape, turkeys launch themselves with a standing leap or a running start and accelerate to 35 mph in a matter of seconds. They cannot remain in the air for more than a few hundred yards, but can glide for a half mile or more when coasting down from a ridgetop. |
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| The five wild turkey subspecies recognized in North America are shown on the following pages. Subspecies can be difficult to distinguish from one another, since regional variations within the group can be more dramatic than physical differences between the subspecies. In addition, where the subspecies’ ranges overlap, cross- breeding produces hybrid birds that show traits of both parents. A map showing the current range of all five subspecies (right) is a good starting point in determining where subspecies live. |
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| The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), the largest game bird in North America, is related to pheasants, quail and grouse. It is found throughout the United States, except for Alaska, and in parts of Canada and Mexico. There are five recognized subspecies, which vary slightly in color and size. The male wild turkey, called a tom or gobbler, is a large, robust bird weighing up to 30 pounds and standing as high as 4 feet tall. His body color is brownish black with a metallic, iridescent sheen. The head and neck, nearly bald, vary from white to blue to red. Bright red, fleshy bumps, called caruncles, droop from the front and sides of the neck, and a fleshy flap of skin, called a dewlap, is attached to the throat and neck. A fingerlike protrusion called a snood hangs over the front of the beak. When the tom is alert, the snood constricts and projects vertically as a fleshy bump at the top rear of the beak. A clump of long, coarse hairs, called a beard, protrudes from the front of the tom’s breast and may grow as long as 12 inches on older birds. Each leg has a spur on it; these spurs are small and rounded on young birds; long, pointed and usually very sharp on mature birds. The male is called a gobbler for good reason: his rattling, deep- toned call is one of the most recognizable sounds in all of nature. At mating time, toms gobble with full-volume gusto, attempting to attract hens for breeding. Adult males display for hens by fanning their tail feathers, puffing up their body feathers and dragging their wings as they strut. Their heads and necks turn bright red during breeding season or when the tom is otherwise excited. Adult females, or hens, are considerably smaller than toms, rarely weighing more than 10 to 12 pounds. Their overall body color is duller than the male’s and lacks his metallic, iridescent sheen. The hen’s head and neck are usually blue-gray in color and sparsely covered with small, dark feathers. Caruncles are sometimes present, but smaller than those on toms. Some hens grow small, rudimentary beards and spurs. Although they don’t gobble, hens make a variety of cluck, purr, cutt and yelp sounds. Dominant hens may assert themselves with a display resembling that of the male, though they do not strut. |
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| EASTERN WILD TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) The eastern wild turkey can be found through much of the eastern United States, from Maine to North Dakota in the North, and from northern Florida to Texas in the South. Thanks to stocking efforts in the Pacific Northwest, this subspecies thrives today in Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho – areas well beyond its ancestral range.Its range now includes 38 states. With a total United States population estimated between 2.5 and 3 million birds, the eastern turkey is the most abundant of the subspecies – and the most heavily hunted. continued on the next page |
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