What Most People Do Not Know About Ocellated Turkey

By Virginia Clark


Turkey, like many other animals also has a variety of species. Turkey becomes the talk of the day especially days before thanksgiving. It is the main meal in every American home on this special day. Farmers take it up on themselves to feed all those turkeys as much as needed. The article talks about a species of turkey known as an ocellated turkey.

They all have blue heads, male and female. They also have red nodules sprouting out of their heads. These birds are more colorful compared to the wild turkeys of North America. They can grow for up to 1.2 meters in length. The males have spurred on their legs. These are usually used when two males get into a fight.

Their diet is not that much different from the birds we see at the farm. They are omnivorous in nature. This means like us humans they feed on both meat and vegetables. They eat seeds, berries, leaves insects among a lot of other stuff. The male is known as the gobble while the female is known as a hen. The male gobbles and struts around the hen during mating season to attract it.

These birds are spread in Central America and some parts of Mexico including Belize and Guatemala. However, their population continues to decrease rapidly. This is because their habitat is being destroyed. Another reason is the constant hunting by the locals and the predators that have gone on for so long. The predators include raccoons, birds of prey jaguars among many other animals.

In the early 1900s, these birds had been hunted so much. They almost became extinct. Luckily, a rehabilitation program was introduced, and they were able to repopulate and go back to being large in numbers. As much as much as we seem to think that bird and chicken are related, they are not. Evolution of 45million years ago proves it.

There are about six subspecies of the wild turkey. The eastern wild bird is found on the eastern side of the US and even extend into Canada. Some refer to them as the forest turkey. They happen to the most dominant of all the species. They have gotten to a whopping 5 million in number which is a huge number of birds.

There is a set of modified feathers on the breast of the male which is popularly referred to like the beard. It is however absent in the females. Both male and female have snoods. They are more obvious in the males. Females have been known to prefer males with longer snoods. These are also in the determination of a winner after a fight.

The turkeys can run, and they can fly. They prefer running. They are able to run for up to 25 miles per hour. They are also able to run at 55 miles per hour. You can actually be able to tear the difference between a male and a female turkey just by looking at their dropping. The male has a spiral-shaped dropping while a female has J shaped ones.

A collection of related males can go look for females together, but only one have the chance to mate with an individual female. The incubation period for the eggs is 28days.




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