Wildlife Spotlight: Wild Turkey

Commanding respect and admiration, this wild ancestor of the domestic turkey is a highly heralded game bird known for its thundering gobbling call and its spectacular eyesight.

An adult male wild turkey is heavy-bodied and larger than the female. The skin on its featherless head is blue and it has red wattles on its throat and neck, a dark beard on its breast, and dark brown or bronze iridescent feathers. The female is slimmer and duller, lacks the red wattles, and usually does not have a beard. During courtship displays, the male struts, fans out its tail and gobbles. After mating the female builds a nest on the ground by scratching out a shallow depression hidden in taller brush or beneath a shrub, and lines it with grass and dead leaves.

Turkeys are not strong fliers and spend much of their time on the ground, hunting for acorns, seeds, fruits, insects, leaves and small vertebrates. They are wary birds and will run to escape danger or fly to a tree. They prefer open forests and forest edges and, except for the Keys, occur throughout Florida in suitable habitat.

By the early 1900s, wild turkeys suffered major population declines from over-hunting and habitat loss. Through habitat restoration and reintroduction into suitable habitat, the population of wild turkeys has increased. Today, the major threats facing the wild turkey population include the loss of wooded habitat and disease transmission from domestic poultry.

Return to Wildlife Viewing