The turkey is a huge North American bird belonging to the genus Meleagris.The Meleagris gallopavo (wild turkey) of central and eastern North America and the Meleagris ocellata (ocellated turkey) of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula are the two extant turkey species. The males of both turkey classes have a snood, which is a fleshy wattle that hangs from the top of the beak.In their range, they are among the biggest birds. The male is larger and more colorful than the female, as is the case with many extensive ground-feeding birds. Turkeys have a long-length fan on their backs, apart from tail feathers, which distinguishes them from the rest of the birds and makes it easy to identify them. Rusty or white tips can be seen on their rump and tail feathers. The color of the naked skin on the heads and necks ranges from red to blue to gray.In ancient Mexico, turkeys were raised for food and hunting as well as for their social and symbolic value. Humans consume the turkey’s Meleagris gallopavo kind. Domestic turkeys are carefully raised to become larger in size in their flesh than wild turkeys.Turkeys have always been there as decor at Thanksgiving parties, but have you ever wondered what the differences between males and females are? There is a lot of such information available on the characteristics of the males and females of the turkey bird, and lots of curious questions have been answered for you. Read on to find out!Also, you can surely check out our other facts articles on what baby turkeys are called and can you eat turkey eggs.Which turkey is the best: male or female?So which turkey is the best - the male or the female? Let’s find out.The most preferred ones for the meat have always been the male turkeys. While turkey breast or ground turkey bought to prepare a favorite dish might come from either sexed birds, whole turkeys are commonly labeled with the gender of each bird (be it the tom or the hen).Though there is no difference in tenderness between females, known as hens, and males, known as toms, the gender of the bird might alter its size. The toms are often larger and therefore considered the better of the two adult birds for the purpose of hunting or feasting.What is the difference between female and male turkeys?Those who are not very familiar with the turkey woods or, in general, have no idea about wild turkeys may find it quite difficult to distinguish male turkeys from female turkeys.We can identify mature males and females by their tail feathers, difference in beard sizes, hunting sturt, gobbling style, leg, chest, group of jakes, mating patterns, feather color, and many more such physical characteristics. A male turkey is referred to as ’long-beards’, ‘gobblers’, and ’toms’, whereas a female is simply called a ‘hen’. A juvenile or young male or baby turkey is called ‘jake’.The male turkey has a dark-colored, large chest, which on most turkeys looks black with a tuft of coarse hair just beneath the truck and is called a beard. Beards are even found on the breast of Jake, but they are much less developed than their adult counterparts. On the eastern wild turkey, the beard is much more natural than the common species of wild turkey. It is also said by many hunting professionals that toms can have more than one beard. The only difference is with the species.The hen is usually brown or golden brown in color and, obviously, beardless. However, in very rare cases, hens develop beards, which is not likely to happen much of the time and can be confusing for hunting professionals.The tips of the breast feathers in males and females are slightly distinguishable. An eastern hen, for example, will have lighter-colored feather tips, whereas toms will have black feathers’ tips, contributing to their dark black appearance. A tom turkey’s head is primarily blue, white, and red, which is one of the reasons it was almost adopted as the national bird of the United States. The head of a hen is less colorful, typically pale blue or bluish-gray in appearance, which is another differentiating feature between mature male and female birds.The adult toms have big, visible spurs extending from the rear of their legs, whilst the jakes’ spurs (coming from behind their legs) are considerably smaller. Females seldom have spurs on the rear of their legs. Tom’s snood, or the fleshy area immediately above the head, is red, blue, or white, but hens’ is either absent or blue-gray in hue.Males strut with their tails fanned, whilst females don’t strut or fan. Other techniques to tell the difference between tom and hen turkeys include body postures and vocalizations such as strutting and gobbling. Gobbles or drums are the calls that adult males will make, and the types of calls that female turkeys will make will be yelps, clucks, and cuts. There will be fewer feathers in toms than hens, which have red, blue, and white feathers.The Size Difference Between The GendersMales and females have a lot of differences in their body sizes. In general, mature male turkeys, or toms, are larger in size and length than female turkeys, or hens. At the same time, jigs and mature hens can be very similar in size and length.Identifying Female And Male Turkeys In The SpringHow does one differentiate between the male and female during spring? Let’s find out.Turkeys breed during the spring season, and because only a tiny percentage of female turkeys develop beards, they can be lawfully harvested during that time. However, their extinction decreases the turkey population’s reproductive capacity, and it is important to know the difference between male and female turkeys.Gobblers have a snood (fleshy mass above the beak) and are red, blue, and white on top of their heads, while hens are blue-gray (including heads) with no snoods. Gobblers have long, filament-like beards, whereas hens have no beards. Male turkeys strut with feathers dropped and tail fanned, whereas females don’t strut with their brown feathers or fan their tail.Breeding Habits of TurkeysThe spring season is the peak breeding season for turkeys. Turkeys are usually found to be more active in terms of mating during this season. Wild turkeys need wide habitats with grasses and other herbaceous flora that are 4-8 in (10–20 cm) tall for mating.In order to offer protection from predators, these open spaces must be near brushy regions. Throughout the spring, turkeys build their nests on the ground. Nests are frequently built-in brushy places with relatively thick grass near the mating habitats. Brush piles or tiny clumps of brush and trees inside unmowed pastures might offer the needed shelter for female turkeys to lay their eggs. The turkey’s diet consists mostly of fragile, green shoots of grass and other herbaceous plants in the spring.Which gender of turkey makes a better pet?Instead of converting this bird with colorful feathers into their supper, some like to keep them on their farms as pets. The reason might be that, in comparison to other birds, turkeys are found to be more friendly. Hence, they are called ‘social birds’. However, there are some characteristics that create differences between male and female turkeys and help one determine which one makes a better pet.Female birds, or hens, have been mostly noticed seeking attention from people, sometimes by going to their owner’s feet and rubbing their neck against them or by running along with them on fields. This pretty much shows that females are sensitive and don’t differentiate much between their bird family and humans. If we talk about male turkeys, they have been seen being territorial, which eventually means being protective of their group, and they are always ready to fight with a group who’ll try to invade their pretty, small reign of hens, jakes, and young babies. Therefore, their behavior pattern tells us that females are more suitable for pets than males.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting, family-friendly, and mind-blowing facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for male vs. female turkey, then why not take a look at what is a group of turkeys called, or turkey facts.
The turkey is a huge North American bird belonging to the genus Meleagris.
