Wild Turkey

I am a Wild Turkey and want to hunt down and see locations that have Wild Turkey's or any other kind of Turkey, that you might come across.

There are two species of wild turkey, Galliformes and the Ocellated. The average weight of the adult male is 18 lb and the adult female is 8 lb. The average length is 3.5 ft and the average wingspan is 4.8 ft. The record-sized adult male wild turkey was 38 lbs.

The six subspecies of the Galliformes, all which have subtle color differences are:

1. Eastern
Range covers the entire eastern half of the United States; extending also into South Eastern Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces in Canada. They were first named forest turkey in 1817. They can grow up to 4 feet tall. The upper tail coverts are tipped with chestnut brown.

2. Osceola or Florida
Found only on the Florida peninsula, named for the famous Seminole Chief Osceola. It is smaller and darker than the Eastern turkey. The wing feathers are very dark with smaller amounts of the white barring seen on other sub-species. Their overall body feathers are iridescent green-purple color.

3. Rio Grande
Found through Texas to Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, and Central and Western California, as well as parts of a few northeastern states. Rio Grande turkeys were also introduced to Hawaii in the late 1950s. This sub-species is native to the central plain states. They have disproportionately long legs. Their body feathers often have a green-coppery sheen to them. The tips of the tail and lower back feathers are a buff-very light tan color. Habitats are brush areas next to streams, rivers or mesquite pine and scrub oak forests. Only turkey to be found up to 6,000 feet in elevation and are gregarious.

4. Merriam's
Found through the Rocky Mountains and the neighboring prairies of Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota as well as much of the high mesa country of New Mexico Live in ponderosa pine and mountain regions. The tail and lower back feathers have white tips. They have purple and bronze reflections.

5. Gould's
Found from central to northern Mexico, the southern part of Arizona, and New Mexico. They exist in small numbers but are abundant in Northwestern portions of Mexico. Gould's are the largest of the five sub-species. They have longer legs, larger feet, and longer tail feathers with body feathers of copper and greenish-gold.

6. South Mexican
One of the few that are not found in North America. The Aztecs domesticated the southern Mexican sub-species, giving rise to the domesticated turkey which is a popular main dish for the Thanksgiving holiday, held in November in the United States and October in Canada. The pilgrim settlers of Massachusetts brought descendants of Mexican domesticated turkeys from England, not realizing that they occurred wild in America.

Turkeys are agile fliers, reaching a speed of 50 mph and very cunning, unlike their domestic counterparts. They usually fly close to the ground for no more than a quarter mile.

Wild Turkeys forage on the ground or climbing shrubs and small trees to feed. They prefer eat things such as acorns and nuts of various trees, including hazel, chestnut, hickory, and pinyon pine as well as various seeds, berries such as juniper and bearberry, roots and insects. Turkeys are also known to occasionally consume small vertebrates like snakes, frogs or salamanders. Turkeys around 80% of a turkey's diet is made up of grass. Turkey populations can reach large numbers in small areas because of their ability to forage for different types of food. Early morning and late afternoon are the desired times for eating.

Males form territories that may have as many as 5 hens within them. Male Wild Turkeys display for females by puffing out their feathers, spreading out their tails and dragging their wings. This behavior is most commonly referred to as strutting. Their heads and necks are colored brilliantly with red, blue and white. The color can change with the turkey’s mood, with a solid white head and neck being the most excited. They also use their gobble noises and make scrapes on the ground for territorial purposes. Courtship begins during the months of March and April, which is when turkeys are still flocked together in winter areas.

When mating is finished, females search for nest sites on the ground at the base of a tree or shrub, or in tall grass, which are shallow dirt depressions. At night, they roost in trees, if they are living near lakes or river backwaters. Hens lay a clutch of 10-14 eggs, usually one per day. The eggs are incubated for at least 28 days.

The idea that Benjamin Franklin preferred the Turkey as the national bird of the United States comes from a letter he wrote to his daughter in 1784, after congress spent six years choosing the eagle as the emblem of the newly formed country, criticizing the choice of the Eagle as the national bird and suggesting that a Turkey would have made a better alternative. It is not apparent that Franklin ever officially advocated for the turkey.