Species: Meleagris gallopavo
Wild Turkey
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Aves
Order
Galliformes
Family
Phasianidae
Genus
Meleagris
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Guajolote Norteño - dindon sauvage
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Other Birds
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Galliformes - Phasianidae - Meleagris - Fragmented distributions and population bottlenecks due to human activities appear to have increased genetic differentiation among populations (Leberg 1991).
Ecology and Life History
Migration
true - false - false
Non-migrant
true
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Feeds on seeds, nuts, acorns, fruits, and grains, buds, and young grass blades. During summer eats many insects; may also eat some small vertebrates (frogs, toads, snakes, etc). Principal winter foods in the northeastern part of the range include acorns, fruits of multiflora rose and barberry, apples, field corn, fertile fronds of sensitive fern and various other ferns, mosses, and hardwood seeds and buds. In Massachusetts, manure spread on fields was an important source of food in winter (Vander Haegen et al. 1989). Usually forages on the ground.
Reproduction Comments
Female incubates average of 10-12 eggs for 27-28 days, beginning ning late April-early May in Alabama, Florida, New York, early May in Minnesota; most nests initiated mid-April to mid-May in northeastern Colorado. Hatching begins in May in south, usually early June in north. Young are tended by female; brood stays together until winter. Females first breed as yearlings.
Ecology Comments
Sexes usually form separate flocks in winter. In Massachusetts, predation exerted greatest influence on productivity; in Minnesota, winter conditions and resulting pre-breeding female condition were important factor in productivity (Vander Haegen et al. 1988). In southeastern Oklahoma, mean seasonal home range sizes for adult females were 225 ha (winter), 865 ha (spring), 780 ha (summer), and 459 ha (fall) (Bidwell et al. 1989). Home range in Montana was 260 to 520 hectares (Jonas 1966). In Colorado, adult males moved an average distance of 5.3 km from winter ranges to spring breeding areas; subadult males moved an average distance of 8.7 km; in spring males moved about 1000 m between morning and evening roosts used on the same day (Hoffman 1991). In north, deep snow restrict movements.
Length
117
Weight
7400
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
1996-11-25
Global Status Last Changed
1996-11-25
Other Status
LC - Least concern
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
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Global Range
Native to the eastern and southwestern U.S., Mexico; southern Ontario. Extirpated or reduced in much of former range but introduced widely within, and outside of, former range. Established in Hawaiian Islands (Niihau, Lanai, Maui, Hawaii).