Wild Turkey

How to identify

Field marks

1. Male has a bare, reddish head and a wattle on the throat
2. Male has a long tail that spreads into a fan
3. Male often has a tuft of coarse bristles hanging from the breast
4. Primaries have white barring

Male, female and young

Male markedly larger, with various iridescent colors in the plumage; female duller and brownish-gray.

Voice

Gives clucking and cooing calls; male also produces low drumming and puffing sounds.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: May · Most records: United States, Canada, New Zealand

Wild Turkey has been recorded at 598 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 19 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Madera Canyon – Santa Rita LodgeUnited States25,371 records
2. Point Pelee National ParkCanada14,087 records
3. Parker River NWRUnited States10,608 records

Countries and regions with the most records

United StatesCanadaNew ZealandNew CaledoniaMexicoAustraliaDominican RepublicCuba

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is an upland game bird native to North America, one of two extant species of turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey (M. g. domesticus), which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey (not the related ocellated turkey).

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions