Wild turkeys can fly close to 50 miles per hour. They're omnivorous and will eat from bird feeders when available. There isn't much I don't know about Meleagris gallopavo, and the only thing I haven't seen one do is swim, though I've seen rare photos of that.
It's currently their mating season. While XY's can gobble year-round, peak gobbling activity is in the spring. They have a complex vocabulary. Only the males gobble & strut (well, sometimes I have seen hens strut). Hen vocalizations include mating yelps, clucks, purrs, and something called cutting. Juvies do a shrill whistle called a kee-kee.
I've seen them at dawn come sailing off the side of a mountain in Sonora, Mexico. The wind whistling in their wings...it sounds like a bomb dropping.
It's making me misty-eyed as we speak.
Ugly? It's in the eye of the beholder.
Great photos. Thanks for sharing; it made my day.
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Thread: Turkeys!
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03-31-2008, 02:12 PM #20
sail on, silver girl
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Last edited by SlowButSteady; 03-31-2008 at 02:19 PM.
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