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Wild Turkey

Meleagris gallopavo

Description:

Adult male turkeys, called "gobblers," are very large birds often weighing over 25 lbs. in our area. The males have dark iridescent body feathers that may be russet, green, brown, and black depending upon the quality of the light; wings are lighter and striped. Males have bare skin on their heads that change color depending upon their state of mind. For instance, red when they are fully aroused and ready to fight to blue when they are being less aggressive. Males also have a beard of specialized bristly feathers that protrudes from their breast. Females are smaller, have darker, duller heads and bodies and typically no beard.

Habitat:

Turkeys range across the US and Mexico in habitat ranging from well-watered deciduous forest, to arid open parklands and wooded river bottoms.

Notes:

I often have wild turkeys in the backyard. They sometimes come up on the ground level deck to pick up bird seed spilled from the overhead birdfeeder by other birds. These little chicks were just to much to pass up and I snapped a lot of photos of them before the hen led them off back to the woods.

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18 Comments

Dilan Chathuranga
Dilan Chathuranga 9 years ago

Congrats Gordon!
Great capture!!

Congratulations and happy Thanksgiving Gordon!

Yasser
Yasser 9 years ago

Gordon, it was 3+ years in the making, but these wonderful photos have finally earned their moment in the spotlight. Thanksgiving day was the perfect day for these little chicks to be recognized as Spotting of the Day! Thanks for sharing these beauties and we hope you had wonderful celebration today.

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Caleb Steindel
Caleb Steindel 10 years ago

cute capture ;)

Gordon Dietzman
Gordon Dietzman 11 years ago

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Glad you liked the photos.

EmilyMarino
EmilyMarino 11 years ago

I love this picture so much! Excellent composition!

KatCuff
KatCuff 11 years ago

Great job!

CricketsBlog
CricketsBlog 11 years ago

I just really love that first photo--the light, the composition...it's very nice.

BrandonBlount
BrandonBlount 11 years ago

Great series! I love the poults and how cute they are!

Could you please adjust the common name, and scientific name to reflect the subspecies? These would be Eastern Wild Turkeys, Meleagris gallopavo silvestris.

Seema
Seema 11 years ago

Cute chick...

KarenL
KarenL 11 years ago

How cute!

Ava T-B
Ava T-B 11 years ago

Sweet!

AntonWahyudi
AntonWahyudi 11 years ago

nice one..

alicelongmartin
alicelongmartin 11 years ago

Easter time is a time of new life - babies are showing up everywhere!

Jeannette
Jeannette 11 years ago

Cute little guy :)

misako
misako 11 years ago

cute!

rutasandinas
rutasandinas 11 years ago

Nice!!! bello

Atul
Atul 11 years ago

lovely!

Gordon Dietzman
Spotted by
Gordon Dietzman

Roseville, Minnesota, USA

Spotted on Jul 21, 2011
Submitted on Apr 3, 2012

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Reference

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