Showing off: A male turkey (tom) can really show off. Tom turkeys fan out their tails, hens can’t. When a tom is trying to get the attention of the hen, he fluffs his feathers and spreads his tail. This is called strutting. The wattle, the bumpy skin on his neck, puffs out because it fills up with blood. His head can turn red, white or blue, depending on his mood. Both tom and hen turkeys have a snood, a long piece of flesh that dangles over their beak. Toms have longer snoods. All toms and a few hens have a beard on their chest made of long, thin, hair-like feathers. Only tom turkeys gobble, hen turkeys make a clucking or yelping sound.

Length, weight and habitat: The wild turkey is one of the largest birds in North America. An adult male can grow up to 4 feet (1.2m) long from his beak to the end of his tail. The average tom weighs 18 pounds (8kg.) the average hen weighs 8 (3.6kg.) pounds. Wild turkeys live in open fields and woods.

Flying: Turkeys are fantastic flyers for short distances. They take off like helicopters, going almost straight up. Wild turkeys can fly up to 55 miles (88km) per hour. Turkeys run more often then they fly. For short sprints, they can run up to 18 miles (290km) per hour, faster than an Olympic runner can.

Eating: Turkeys prefer to eat insects, grasses, nuts and berries. The whole nuts and pebbles they eat help their gizzard to grind up tough food. Predators, like coyotes and foxes, kill birds that are old, sick, or weakened by winter. Most turkeys live about two years, but few live up to 12 years.
Nesting habits: In early spring, a mother hen makes her nest on the ground and lays 10 to 12 eggs. If she leaves the nest, she covers it with leaves as a camouflage. After four weeks of incubation, the babies peck their way out. Baby turkeys are called poults. They hatch with fluffy, downy feathers. In two weeks, new feathers cover the downy ones. One cold spring rain can kill them. To keep warm and dry, they nestle under their mother’ wings and body.

Turkeys in trouble: Wild turkeys in Michigan were extirpated (killed off) 100 years ago. That’s because woods where turkeys lived were cut down for lumber and to make farms and cities. Many turkeys were killed before hunting laws were passed. By the early 1900’s their numbers in North America had dropped from millions to only about 30,000. When sportsmen saw that the wild turkeys were almost gone, they asked state governments to pass good hunting laws to protect the birds. Hunting laws were passed to limit the number killed. Wildlife scientists were asked to move wild turkeys to places where they had disappeared. Bands were put on the turkeys’ legs to help the scientist keep track of them. Now every state except Alaska has flocks. Today, the wild turkey is a game bird hunted by sportsmen.