1. Blushing. You ever get embarrassed and feel the blood rush to your cheeks? When agitated, frightened, or excited, the head and neck will turn from its usual pale pink or gray blue to a deep red, white, or blue. A male’s waddle will turn a rich scarlet to reflect its’ elevated sexual hormones during mating season. Awww shucks.
2. Make a Wish. The wishbone dates back to more than 150 million years ago to a group of meat-eating dinosaurs including the T-rex and Velociraptor. I bet that first Thanksgiving would have gone down a little bit differently back then.
3. In the Pines. Turkeys can get pretty hefty in the wild. (37 lbs according the National Turkey Federation) So it’s thought that turkeys hang out all the time on the ground, but they actually prefer to sleep on the branches of trees to avoid predators. You know they just heckle the foxes and coyotes below right before going to sleep. What a bunch of jerks, lol.
4. Gobble. Only males gobble. Each male (called a “gobbler” – females are called “hens”) has its own unique sound to attract potential mates while strutting around. Like Mick Jagger!
5. Yes they can fly. Wild turkeys can fly (55 mph, no less). Like the chicken’s wild counterpart, the Jungle Fowl, wild turkeys can indeed fly. It is the unfortunate intervention of humans by selective breeding that have kept the domestic turkey from leaving the ground. Wild turkeys aren’t often seen soaring in the air, because they prefer to feed on the ground. Yeah, right, I bet they all have acrophobia, like me.
featured art:
“Domestic Descendant”
oil on canvas