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The
Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is a large gamebird,
one of a number of species of turkey. Adults have a bluish
featherless small head, a red throat, long legs and a
dark body. They have a long dark fan-shaped tail. Their
wings are a glossy bronze. As with many other species
of the Galliformes, they exhibit strong sexual dimorphism
- males have red wattles on the throat and neck and are
significantly larger than females. The breeding habitat
is wooded areas, usually with clearings, across most of
the United States and parts of southern Canada, where
they are permanent residents. They nest on the ground
at the bottom of a tree, shrub or in tall grass. Male
birds display for females by puffing out their feathers,
spreading out their tails, inflating the wattles on their
neck and drooping wings. Males are polygamous, and they
form territories that may have as many as 5 hens within. |
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The
birds forage on the ground or climb shrubs to eat berries.
They are omnivorous, eating acorns, seeds, berries, roots
and insects, sometimes snakes, frogs or salamanders. They
are relatively weak fliers and will escape on foot if
possible; at night, these birds roost in trees. Only the
males "gobble"; the females cluck. The males
also emit a low-pitched thumping sound. This bird was
Benjamin Franklin's preference as the national bird for
the United States. It has been adopted as the official
game bird of South Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma and Massachusetts.It
is the traditional main dish for the Thanksgiving holiday,
which is held in November in the United States and October
in Canada, but of course it is now normally replaced by
the domesticated turkey. The Aztecs domesticated the southern
Mexican form, M. g. gallopavo, one of the six subspecies. |
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