Scientific Classification

KINGDOM: Animalia

PHYLUM: Chordata

CLASS: Aves

ORDER: Galliformes

FAMILY: Phasianidae

GENUS: Meleagris

SPECIES: M. gallopavo

Conservation Status

Male turkey with closed feathers
Six wild turkeys with their tail feathers spread and backs facing
Wild Turkey - female looking at copy space
Tom turkey strutting looking for a mate in the spring

Male wild turkeys can weigh a little over 20 pounds and up to 4 feet tall. Females on the other hand are half the weight and can grow up to 3 feet tall.

Males have “beards” that grow about nine inches long.

Besides its brown feathering that allows it to blend into the woods, they also have a very large field of vision as their eyes are on opposite sides of their head. This gives the wild turkey 270 degrees of vision and the ability to see three times better than humans.

Native to North America, wild turkeys prefer dense hardwood forests with scattered openings as the turkeys can blend in easier.
Wild turkeys forage in the early morning and late afternoon. They usually eat berries, acorns, nuts, and other products of trees. However, they also consume small amphibians and reptiles making them omnivores.

A large population of turkeys can inhabit the same area since their diets are so vast.
Male turkeys mate with multiple hens by putting on a courtship display of puffing out their chest and feathers. After mating, females (also known as hens) will make shallow nests in the ground surrounded by woody vegetation. The hens will lay a clutch of about 10-14 eggs over a two-week span. The eggs will hatch after a month with the poults leaving the nest within a day.

The wild turkey is the same species as the domestic turkey.

Even though the wild turkey is native to North America, the Europeans named the turkeys they found in America after the country Turkey as they resembled the Guineafowl sold by Turkish merchants.

Other ways to avoid predators is how fast the wild turkey can flee, as well as where they sleep. Wild turkeys can run up to 25 miles per hour and fly for short distances with their 6-foot wingspan. Once a turkey starts its tilted descent down to the ground, it can hit 55 miles per hour! Amazingly, wild turkeys sleep up in the trees to avoid predators at night.