A Tale of Two Turkeys
It seems that since we are all socially limited at this time, people have discovered that they can go outside, which has its pros and cons. Pros being people get to be outside and I am truly happy for that, cons being we are supposed to be avoiding one another and when you’re on a boardwalk with other people, there isn’t really anywhere to go...
Sure enough, there were few people in the parking lot when we arrived and we saw a couple walk down a trail and almost immediately turn around as they were not equipped to be walking through flooded out trails. Trails were pretty much ours that day! We began looking in one of the wetlands for the ever elusive chorus frog. Despite the fact that this season I had been to several sites and several wetlands and heard what had to be hundreds of chorus frogs, I had still only visually seen one this year. Scanning the pool from a distance with binoculars would surely enable to us to spot one from a distance without getting too close. This, however, proved useless and we moved closer to the pool edge to gain a better look. If haven’t yet gone to a pond or vernal pool to try and spot these and other small frogs, I encourage you to do so. It truly seems as if their calls just exist in the air; you will strain your eyes attempting find them. Eventually we moved along, frogless.
As we got back onto the trail, I quickly grabbed Murphy’s arm to keep her from moving any further.
So last week when it had poured all the night before and was overcast all day, it was a good sign that there would be few people out on the trails.
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| Flooding of trails fortunately left many people at home |
Sure enough, there were few people in the parking lot when we arrived and we saw a couple walk down a trail and almost immediately turn around as they were not equipped to be walking through flooded out trails. Trails were pretty much ours that day! We began looking in one of the wetlands for the ever elusive chorus frog. Despite the fact that this season I had been to several sites and several wetlands and heard what had to be hundreds of chorus frogs, I had still only visually seen one this year. Scanning the pool from a distance with binoculars would surely enable to us to spot one from a distance without getting too close. This, however, proved useless and we moved closer to the pool edge to gain a better look. If haven’t yet gone to a pond or vernal pool to try and spot these and other small frogs, I encourage you to do so. It truly seems as if their calls just exist in the air; you will strain your eyes attempting find them. Eventually we moved along, frogless.
As we got back onto the trail, I quickly grabbed Murphy’s arm to keep her from moving any further.
“Look!” I said, as I pointed off the trial.
There were two Tom Turkeys with full feather display strutting around one another as a group of females carefully preened themselves a few feet away. We watched them for the next half hour. The Toms walked, quite gentlemanly around each other. I expected at any minute for the toms to break out in bit of brawl, but they never stooped to that level.
If I had to guess, I would bet that outside of birders and hunters, few people have really taken in the beauty of a turkey. From a distance they appear a bit drab, probably to blend in with the underbrush, but looking at them through a pair of binoculars opens up a world of color variation. What appears black from a few hundred feet away is actually iridescent black, green, and brown. The black bars on their tail feathers add a nice border to the alternating brown striping. To me, their wings stick out quite significantly in terms of color compared to the rest of their body. They seem oddly white and stripped, beautiful nonetheless. The strangest thing about Turkeys is their head; it seems like the head of a different creature. One of the Toms we saw had a striking blue head and the neck was a bright red.
I couldn’t exactly tell you what was going on. I’m not sure if we were witnessing the two males trying to impress the females or if the females “belonged” to one of the males and the second one was trying to move in on them. Regardless, the females seemed quite unimpressed with whatever was going on and they continued to preen themselves. Amongst the group of hens was a leucistic hen, meaning it lacked pigment in its feathers, displaying mostly white and some black. This differs from albinism in that the eyes are unaffected. I have seen a few turkeys in this area with this, so it seems that they are able to breed fine, although I wonder how it will affect the population as a whole in the long term. After some time of watching and snapping photos we moved along, leaving them to continue strutting and preening.
After going home and reflecting on the turkeys, I remembered a question I had before on turkeys that I never looked into; this was my opportunity to do so while they were still fresh in my mind.
“Where were the other turkeys??” meaning, “is the Wild Turkey, the only turkey that exists?” Fortunately, we live in an amazing time where questions like that can be quickly answered and I shortly had my answer: no. Meet the Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata), the only other bird that is in the same genus as the Wild Turkey (M. gallopavo).
It’s likely most people haven’t heard of these birds, which would make sense as their distribution is limited to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico and into sections of Belize and Guatemala. They are way more tropical looking than our Wild Turkey, with a much brighter blue head and significantly more iridescent. In some respects, I would say it looks more closely related to a peacock than it does to the Wild Turkey.
Unfortunately, this Wild Turkey sister is not doing so hot out there, with the IUCN considering it a Near Threatened Species, that faces pressures from hunting and habitat encroachment. This is a familiar path that our Wild Turkey was on at one time. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, hunting pressures and habitat loss lead to a significant decrease in the Wild Turkey populations, leaving North American with only about 200,000 individuals. The recognition of this decline caused conservation efforts that entailed the transplanting of turkeys from areas of high population to areas where they had been extirpated or were in low numbers. Now, Partners in Flight estimate a total breeding population of about 7.8 million, regaining their lost range and even expanding it. Now that’s a comeback.
The current Ocellated Turkey population is estimated to be between 20,000-49,999 (last estimate from 2008) which is drastically lower than the Wild Turkey, although they do occupy a significantly smaller range. Fortunately, Bird Life International has stated that the Tikal National Preserve in Guatemala provides refuge for the Ocellated Turkey in addition to the Rio Bravo Conservation Area in Belize. Other parks surrounding the Tikal National Preserve are also likely protecting the Turkeys as well. However, I did not really see any information regarding conservation efforts in Mexico, where the bird has its largest range. Hopefully, in time, these three nations are able to find a balance between conservation and hunting, just as has been done with the Wild Turkey here.
Further Reading:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wild_Turkey/lifehistory
https://abcbirds.org/bird/wild-turkey/
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/home
https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22679529/30660127#population
http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/ocellated-turkey-meleagris-ocellata/text
https://blog.nature.org/science/2018/11/19/can-tourism-save-the-ocellated-turkey/
http://www.tikalnationalpark.org/Tikal-Nature.html
https://www.pfbelize.org/biodiversity-fuana/
If I had to guess, I would bet that outside of birders and hunters, few people have really taken in the beauty of a turkey. From a distance they appear a bit drab, probably to blend in with the underbrush, but looking at them through a pair of binoculars opens up a world of color variation. What appears black from a few hundred feet away is actually iridescent black, green, and brown. The black bars on their tail feathers add a nice border to the alternating brown striping. To me, their wings stick out quite significantly in terms of color compared to the rest of their body. They seem oddly white and stripped, beautiful nonetheless. The strangest thing about Turkeys is their head; it seems like the head of a different creature. One of the Toms we saw had a striking blue head and the neck was a bright red.
I couldn’t exactly tell you what was going on. I’m not sure if we were witnessing the two males trying to impress the females or if the females “belonged” to one of the males and the second one was trying to move in on them. Regardless, the females seemed quite unimpressed with whatever was going on and they continued to preen themselves. Amongst the group of hens was a leucistic hen, meaning it lacked pigment in its feathers, displaying mostly white and some black. This differs from albinism in that the eyes are unaffected. I have seen a few turkeys in this area with this, so it seems that they are able to breed fine, although I wonder how it will affect the population as a whole in the long term. After some time of watching and snapping photos we moved along, leaving them to continue strutting and preening.
 |
| The hens were scattered amongst downed trees and brush. The Luecistic hen is in the middle of the photo, but is quite difficult to see. |
 |
| Leucistic turkey seen in 2019 at the same site. Some domesticated turkeys look like this as well, leading some to question if this is actually the descendant of a domesticated turkey. |
After going home and reflecting on the turkeys, I remembered a question I had before on turkeys that I never looked into; this was my opportunity to do so while they were still fresh in my mind.
“Where were the other turkeys??” meaning, “is the Wild Turkey, the only turkey that exists?” Fortunately, we live in an amazing time where questions like that can be quickly answered and I shortly had my answer: no. Meet the Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata), the only other bird that is in the same genus as the Wild Turkey (M. gallopavo).
 |
| https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/116799511 |
It’s likely most people haven’t heard of these birds, which would make sense as their distribution is limited to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico and into sections of Belize and Guatemala. They are way more tropical looking than our Wild Turkey, with a much brighter blue head and significantly more iridescent. In some respects, I would say it looks more closely related to a peacock than it does to the Wild Turkey.
 |
| Range map of the Ocellated Turkey. Very much limited to the Yucatan. https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/p_p_spp/overview?p_p_spp=83431 |
Unfortunately, this Wild Turkey sister is not doing so hot out there, with the IUCN considering it a Near Threatened Species, that faces pressures from hunting and habitat encroachment. This is a familiar path that our Wild Turkey was on at one time. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, hunting pressures and habitat loss lead to a significant decrease in the Wild Turkey populations, leaving North American with only about 200,000 individuals. The recognition of this decline caused conservation efforts that entailed the transplanting of turkeys from areas of high population to areas where they had been extirpated or were in low numbers. Now, Partners in Flight estimate a total breeding population of about 7.8 million, regaining their lost range and even expanding it. Now that’s a comeback.
 |
| Current range of the Wild Turkey. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wild_Turkey/maps-range |
The current Ocellated Turkey population is estimated to be between 20,000-49,999 (last estimate from 2008) which is drastically lower than the Wild Turkey, although they do occupy a significantly smaller range. Fortunately, Bird Life International has stated that the Tikal National Preserve in Guatemala provides refuge for the Ocellated Turkey in addition to the Rio Bravo Conservation Area in Belize. Other parks surrounding the Tikal National Preserve are also likely protecting the Turkeys as well. However, I did not really see any information regarding conservation efforts in Mexico, where the bird has its largest range. Hopefully, in time, these three nations are able to find a balance between conservation and hunting, just as has been done with the Wild Turkey here.
Further Reading:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wild_Turkey/lifehistory
https://abcbirds.org/bird/wild-turkey/
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/home
https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22679529/30660127#population
http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/ocellated-turkey-meleagris-ocellata/text
https://blog.nature.org/science/2018/11/19/can-tourism-save-the-ocellated-turkey/
http://www.tikalnationalpark.org/Tikal-Nature.html
https://www.pfbelize.org/biodiversity-fuana/
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