65 Wild Turkey

• A group of wild Turkeys are called a; Crop / Dole / Gang / Posse / Raffle.
• The turkey is a North American bird.  It is a very sought after hunting bird and at the turn of the 20th century it was thought to have decreased to only 30,000 birds due to land usage and hunting.  Now with good wildlife conservation there are believed to be over 7,000,000 Wild Turkeys.

•  There are over 5,500 feathers on a turkey, including 18 tail feathers that make up the fan.   Although the turkey is thought to be a black bird with a colorful head and feet its feathers have an incandescent color of rich browns, yellows and blues.

 

•  This bird has a history with Native American Indian.  It is believed to be first domesticated by the Mayans in Mexico near Coba 100 BC.
• Indians have used the birds as food and the feathers in ceremonies and clothing.

• This is a depiction of Pocahontas with a turkey robe.

• Feathers used in fletching of arrows.
  

• Head dress or bonnet.

• Turkey wing medicine wand.
• There are 5 mains subspecies, 6 if you include a rarer southern Mexican.  
• It is believed that the name came from Turkish traders that brought the bird to England but there are dozens of ideas to where the name came from.
• Turkeys have very powerful legs and wings.  They can run up to 25 miles per hour and fly at speeds of 55 mile per hour.  They have very good sight, 3 time better than mans but at night they are almost blind.   They take to the trees to roost at night to get away from predators.

 

•  Turkeys are precocial, meaning they are hatched with feathers and able to cope for themselves.  The Tom, what male turkeys are called, has very little to do with raising the Jake or Jennies, what baby chicks are called.  In fact he can mate with many hens during breeding season and then off he goes to puff himself up and look pretty.
• Domesticated turkeys are raised to eat.  They lack the instinct and speed of its ancestors.  The largest domestic turkey was Tyson said to be 86 pounds.  Yikes that's a lot of bird.
• At Christmas we have turkey and some years we put a chicken, inside a goose, inside a turkey, Turgoosehen.  It is a lot of work to debone them all but the flavor is unreal with the fat from the goose marinating the other birds.
• They are omnivorous, meaning they eat nuts, fruit and small amphibians.
• They are found in all states, Mexico and Canada except for Alaska and Hawaii.