Here a question for bird expert is it normal for wild turkey just wonder around towns aka neighborhoods I saw while somewhere in Leonia, New Jersey.
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Yes it is. They can be curious and are rather intelligent although they don’t always look it.
I think it is PBS that had a series called “Growing up… “ , the Growing Up Turkey edition is worth a look. It may still be available but I’m not sure.
Also those are Tom’s and in the spring they form groups because the females of the flock are busy taking care of the next generation,.
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Yep, especially green spaces like city parks, school playgrounds, etc. Had quite a few in Sacramento. There’s a show on Hulu called ‘The United States of Animals’ that features the wild turkeys of New York that shows them wandering through a NY town and roosting in the trees of a residential neighborhood. They’re well acclimated to life around people.
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Yes! Here in Minneapolis, sometimes they wander around busy intersections. I have this observation from a few months ago.
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In Michigan the DNR uses iNat observations to track turkeys. Keep posting!
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There are many iNat observations of Wild Turkeys wandering through downtown Boston and neighboring areas: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=42.463428969390726&nelng=-70.89797610417008&quality_grade=research&swlat=42.21981576410145&swlng=-71.23855227604508&taxon_id=906
As an aside, turkeys had been extirpated from Massachusetts by 1851. They were re-introduced starting in the 1970s. They came back spectacularly! Now one of my colleagues from MassWildlife describes the re-introduction efforts as “embarrassingly successful.”
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