Backyard Turkeys
by Edwin D. Michael
No animal in North America can change its appearance—color, shape, and apparent size—more dramatically than the male turkey. When it assumes the strutting posture, its body feathers fluff up, the breast area broadens, the wings are held outward and downward, and the tail feathers expand into the well-known fan shape. The sleek, streamlined form of a feeding gobbler nearly doubles in size. The change in conformation is accompanied by an even more amazing change in coloration. Head, neck, caruncles, and wattles change color, as brilliant shades of red, white, and blue appear on the nearly featherless skin. These color changes emphasize the suddenly enlarged snood and caruncles. The fanned tail provides a dark backdrop to showcase the brilliant head ornamentation.
Throughout the wild turkey's range, this performance is repeated thousands of times each day of the mating season. Witnessed by a few fortunate hunters, the spectacle is rarely enjoyed by the typical bird watcher. However, it is possible for bird watchers to observe this action at closer distances, for longer periods of time, and in greater comfort than most hunters ever imagine. A readily available, reliable food source will entice turkeys to enter backyards during their daily feeding forays from December through April. This is especially true if a heated birdbath provides drinking water.
My wife and I live in a small subdivision outside Morgantown, West Virginia, with our backyard adjacent to a 50-acre woodland. We moved here about six years ago and were excited the first winter when three wild turkeys entered our yard to feed on spilled sunflower seeds. Although the squirrels and songbirds continually spilled seeds, there were not enough to keep the turkeys in our yard for any length of time. By late winter, wild turkeys were visiting our yard almost daily. Because they were afraid of humans, I began throwing ears of corn into the backyard by going out the front door and tossing the ears of corn over the roof, without being seen. The turkeys usually arrived a few hours after sunrise, so I often deposited several ears in the backyard as darkness settled over the area. After a few weeks, however, I noticed the ears had disappeared by the next morning. Deer, raccoons, and squirrels were the obvious culprits.
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