These are turkeys!
Turkeys are large birds that live in North America.
Do you recognize the sound they make?
Listen!
We call this “gobbling” because it sounds like the turkey is saying gobble gobble gobble!
Speaking of gobbling, turkeys like to eat nuts, berries, seeds, insects, and occasionally
will even eat a frog or lizard.
Turkeys spend most of their days grazing for food and chatting with one another.
At night, they go up into trees to sleep.
That may surprise you, because a lot of people think turkeys can’t fly.
Wild turkeys DO fly - short distances, anyway.
Before taking off, they squat down a little.
Then they use their powerful legs to burst upwards to escape predators.
They beat their wings furiously, and usually fly about 100 yards at a speed of about 55
miles per hour!
The wild turkey is among the five largest flying birds in the world.
The others are swans, the giant albatross, South America’s giant vultures and the kori
bustard, an African bird.
Domesticated turkeys, however - the kind that live on farms - can’t really fly.
They’ve been bred to be very large - so large, that they’re just too heavy.
See the difference between wild turkeys and farm turkeys?
The turkey got its name due to a case of mistaken identity.
People who first came to North America believed this native bird was a different type of bird
that was transported by Turkish merchants - so they referred to them as “turkeys.”
Once they realized that these birds were not the same bird, and are indigenous only to
North America, it was too late.
The name had already caught on!
Wild turkeys were a big hit with explorers, and they brought back turkeys to their home
countries to be bred and raised.
Full-grown wild turkeys typically weighed over 13 kilograms - around 30 pounds!
That meant a lot of food for a family.
Turkeys are now raised by humans throughout the world.
There are two species of turkeys: The wild turkey, also known as the domestic turkey,
and ocellated turkeys.
Wild turkeys can be found in the forests of North America, from Mexico, through the midwest
and eastern United States, all the way up to southeastern Canada.
The ocellated turkeys are found only in the forests of the Yucatán Peninsula.
Ocellated turkeys are much smaller than wild turkeys.
They’re not that different in length, but Ocellated turkeys weigh on average 3 kg (6.6 lb).
Wild turkeys are heavier and weigh on average 13.5 kg (about 30 lbs).
The males in both species are more colorful than the female turkeys.
This is common in the order of galliformes, which are comprised of birds like turkeys,
grouse, chickens, quails and pheasants.
Male turkeys rely on their colorful good looks to attract a mate.
Ocellated turkeys have brown and green feathers.
They have blue heads with red or orange nodules.
Wild turkeys have brown, white and red feathers.
The males can often be seen displaying or fanning their feathers proudly to attract
a female.
There are other very noticeable differences between male and female turkeys.
Did you know male turkeys have beards?
And that’s not all.
Let’s take a closer look at their very fancy heads:
special features include caruncles,
snood, wattle (also called a dewlap), major caruncle and beard.
Caruncles is the name for the excess flesh that helps connect the snood to the wattle
and beard, making up this very specific turkey look.
Turkeys are very social creatures and can be found living and traveling in flocks.They
actually will become distressed when isolated.
Awww.
Groups of turkeys are also called rafters.
Turkeys are very vocal and can be heard frequently gobbling or chatting with one another.
Male turkeys (also known as Jakes when they’re young, and gobblers or toms when they’re
older) make special sounds to attract mates, including drumming, booming, and spitting
sounds.
Female turkeys, also called hens, yelp to let the courting males know where they are.
When turkeys have babies, they lay about a dozen eggs at a time.
They make a nest in a shallow little hole on the ground, surrounded by plants for camouflage.
The eggs hatch after about a month.
Young turkeys can survive leaving the nest right after hatching, but they usually stay
in their mother’s care until their first fall.
Young turkeys, also know as poults, can fly, perch and roost.
As they get older, they fly less and less frequently.
As adults they are more likely to be seen running and climbing over things to get around.
Turkeys can run about 25 miles per hour!
Turkeys are somewhat aggressive especially as they get older.
Adult turkeys can recognize strangers and if an unfamiliar turkey is placed into a flock,
the other turkeys will most likely attack it.
Turkeys have also been known to chase and peck at humans and
other animals they don’t like.
Did you know Benjamin Franklin secretly wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the
United States of America?
He never proposed this publicly, but he wrote a very funny letter to his daughter talking
about how the Bald Eagle wasn’t a very good symbol since it stole fish from other birds.
While the Turkey was by comparison a much more respectable bird that was even quite
brave.
The turkey was also very important to many Native American tribes across North America.
Turkey meat and eggs played an important part in their diet, and they would use their feathers
to make cloaks and headdresses.
The turkey also played a part in many traditional ceremonies, including a famous ritual turkey
dance imitating the wild turkey’s movements.
It has become a common North American tradition to eat turkey on Thanksgiving and other holidays.
Because they are such a large bird, they can be the centerpiece of a feast for a large
number of people.
They also remind Americans of the people who came the continent for the first time.
Before these people moved to America, they didn’t even know what a turkey was!
Turkeys are part of the story of people discovering a new world.
Gobble gobble!
Have you ever seen a turkey in person?
Do you think they’re silly looking?
Do you eat turkey on Thanksgiving?
Let us know in the comment section below, we want to know what you think!
Now it’s time to watch another Socratica Kids video all about animals.
You get to pick!