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Meleagris gallopavo
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.
Turkeys range across the US and Mexico in habitat ranging from well-watered deciduous forest, to arid open parklands and wooded river bottoms.
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.
18 Comments
Congrats Gordon!
Great capture!!
Congratulations and happy Thanksgiving Gordon!
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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cute capture ;)
Thanks everyone for your kind comments. Glad you liked the photos.
I love this picture so much! Excellent composition!
Great job!
I just really love that first photo--the light, the composition...it's very nice.
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.
Cute chick...
How cute!
Sweet!
nice one..
Easter time is a time of new life - babies are showing up everywhere!
Cute little guy :)
cute!
Nice!!! bello
lovely!