Wild and domestic
The wild turkey is native only to North America, and every domestic turkey descends from it. Turkeys were domesticated in Mexico more than 2,000 years ago, and DNA confirms that the turkeys Europeans raised descend from Mexican birds. Researchers at the University of York call the turkey the first animal, after the dog, that people in Mesoamerica took under their control.
Can turkeys fly?
Wild turkeys can. They fly up into trees every evening to roost for the night, and fly in short bursts to escape danger, at an estimated 40 to 55 miles an hour. They run too, at somewhere around 12 to 25 miles an hour by state wildlife agencies' estimates. Domestic turkeys bred for meat are nearly flightless, with short wings and very large breast muscles.
Toms, hens, jakes and poults
Males are toms or gobblers, and females are hens. Young males are jakes, young females are jennies, and very young turkeys are poults. A group is a flock, sometimes called a rafter.
Snood, wattle, caruncles and beard
A tom's head carries a snood, the fleshy flap over the beak, a wattle, the fold of skin below the beak, and caruncles, the bumps on the neck. The beard on the breast is a tuft of hair-like feathers, and about 5 to 10 percent of hens grow one too.
The bare skin of the head changes color with mood, from red to blue to white, and in courtship it can shift in moments. An adult turkey has 5,000 to 6,000 feathers, the Pennsylvania Game Commission says.
Gobbling and strutting
To display, a gobbler fans his tail, puffs out his feathers, pulls his head back and struts back and forth, both for the hens and to assert dominance. His gobble can be heard up to a mile away.
Eyes and ears
Turkeys have keen eyesight and see in color, their best defense by day, though they see poorly at night. They hear low and distant sounds better than people do.
What turkeys eat
Wild turkeys are omnivores. Adults eat about 90 percent plants, nuts, acorns, berries, grasses and seeds, and about 10 percent insects. Poults eat mostly insects.
The comeback
By the early 1900s wild turkeys were close to extinction from overhunting and lost habitat, with perhaps 30,000 left in the country by the 1930s. Releasing pen-raised birds did not work, so wildlife agencies trapped wild turkeys and moved them to new areas. Today there are nearly 6 million in North America, in every state but Alaska. They are not native to California, where they were brought in.
How long turkeys live
A wild turkey lives about three years on average, though some reach 10 or more. In zoos, domestic turkeys live up to about 10 years.
Charlie Brown and the turkeys at Kaleidoscope Desert
The turkeys here, Charlie Brown among them, roam the grounds with the chickens, the peacocks, the geese and the rest of the residents.
Kaleidoscope Desert is a nonprofit art and animal sanctuary on 7.5 acres in Morongo Valley, California, 15 minutes from Joshua Tree and 20 minutes from Palm Springs, where more than 100 animals roam free among the art.
You meet them on the Sanctuary Tour, a guided walk of about 90 minutes that runs daily, with someone who knows every resident by name and their stories. The animals come over on their own terms. Every visit is for adults, 18 and over.
100% of proceeds go to the animals: their rescue, their care, and the sanctuary they live in. Kaleidoscope Desert Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.