Turkeys are a species of bird belonging to the genus Meleagris that are native to the region of North America.Currently, there are two surviving species of turkeys that can be found. One is the wild or domesticated turkeys which are the most commonly found species and the second is the ocellated turkey.The scientific name of the wild turkey bird species is Meleagris gallopavo. Turkeys are foraging omnivorous birds, i.e. they spend most of their day foraging around for food, pecking here and there at various plants, flowers, leaves, shrubs, bulbs, and scratching around in leaf litter to find insects and worms. Turkeys start foraging at dawn and can forage through the whole day, until dusk.When a certain flock of turkeys includes young chicks, they can forage around even at night time in order to provide adequate food for their young. Another exception to this habit of foraging in the case of turkeys are hens who are incubating eggs. Mother turkeys can fast throughout the period of a month in order to avoid leaving her eggs for a long period of time, only taking short breaks to eat and drink.Turkeys can feed on a wide range of natural foods like juniper berries, chestnut oak, red oak, spicebush seeds, cabbage palm, wild grape, winter buds, water beech, and several others. After reading about the diet of these birds, also check what do sharks eat and what do oysters eat?What do wild turkeys eat in the winter?Wild turkeys are opportunistic feeders who survive on the food source which is available to them at any given point in time. As the vegetation changes around them, they can change their diet according to what nature provides them with the changing season.Further, as turkeys cannot fly, they are not migratory birds who can go to warmer places during winter. Therefore, they have to adapt to whatever their surroundings provide them, especially during winters when the weather turns frigid cold.Wild turkeys tend to manage themselves pretty well even during long spells of winter, mainly because of the fats which they consume during the summer season. In winter, there is an abundance of oak acorns that grow in the wild, which makes their staple diet. Other nuts are also consumed by wild turkeys, which include hickory nuts, beechnuts, pecans, and hackberries.Wild turkeys eat several other vegetation which can be found growing in winter, like burdock plants, fern fronds, and club mosses. Further, turkeys eat the buds and needles of the coniferous trees like white pine, ponderosa pine, cedar elm, and hemlock and stems of trees like sugar maple, hop-hornbeam, and beech trees. Also, the evergreen ferns, lichens, and moss also form a part of the daily food that the turkeys can find and eat during winter.Sometimes, if the snow cover is too thick for any plants to grow through, wild turkeys can starve themselves for several weeks before they find something to eat. Although this starvation occurs in many cases, turkeys have adapted themselves to survive through such tough conditions, unless the climate is too extreme.What do wild turkeys eat in the summer?Spring and summer are the times when the forests and most terrains are flourishing with fauna. This time becomes crucial for the forager birds like turkey, who have an abundant source of food ready to be eaten.Wild turkeys can eat the fruits, newly growing leaves and shoots, flowers, and stems of several bushes and plants. Further, they also get to have small worms and insects who had gone into hiding during the frigid months of winter.During the months of early spring and summer, wild turkeys eat freshly grown parts of plants and plant matter like buds, tender leaves, fresh leaf shoots, stems, and roots of most plants which also include cacti and succulents. Turkeys eat crabapples, leaves, and vetch, cherry trees, black cherries, hackberry, wild grapes, seeds of white ash, and any juicy berries they can find.Turkeys also eat spicebush seeds, sunflowers, and plant foliage and grasses like sweet clovers, alfalfa, panic grass, and carpet grass. While they do not particularly like feeding on ticks, but if required turkeys can feed on up to 200 ticks a day!Further, as turkeys are omnivores, they tend to scour for worms in the leaf litter which covers the earth in forests during autumn for worms, snails and slugs, and various insects which can be found flitting among the bushes during summer. Wild turkeys especially love grasshoppers, chufa, and dragonflies and may also chase small reptiles like lizards and small snakes to feed on.Generally, adult turkeys can manage to eat almost everything which can be found in their surroundings, as they tend to go around and peck at everything until they find what they like. Lastly, it is to be noted that turkeys can also eat grit, fine gravel, or sand if they are suffering from an upset stomach as it aids them in relieving the ache and digesting properly.What do baby turkeys eat in the wild?The baby turkeys, or in more proper terms, wild turkey poults learn to forage from a very young age. After hatching, they learn to walk within a few days and peck around themselves with the help of the mother turkey to look for food.A mother turkey can lead her poult to places that are abundant with food which the little turkeys need for healthy growth.Typically, wild turkey poults eat insects like grasshoppers, mollusks like snails and slugs, and small reptiles like lizards. This meat-based food which the hatchlings intake is necessary for their initial development as it is a protein-rich diet. Baby turkeys need a lot of nutrients, especially proteins during their childhood hence they prefer to eat insects a lot more compared to plants or fruits.It is said that during their first summer, a turkey poult may spend up to 90% of their day foraging for food so as to satisfy their nutritional requirements. Further, as young birds start to grow older, they venture out from their specific tastes and try other foods as well like adult turkeys and their foraging time also reduces to several hours compared to their initial full day of foraging.What not to feed a wild turkey?Turkeys are wild animals who have been living by themselves for centuries and surviving through extreme climatic conditions. Turkeys can survive through the harshest of winters and make it till the end. When humans try to feed wild turkeys, they may have the right intention for doing so, but it does not help the turkeys.Feeding turkeys every day can make them dependent on humans and kill their natural instincts. Hence, it is advised not to feed the turkeys at all, but there are ways in which you can ensure that the turkeys who may be living in your area have access to proper resources of food. This can be done by letting some extra weeds or shrubs grow if possible so that the turkeys can feed on them, or leaving the foliage of leaves on the ground during autumn so that the turkeys can peck at the insects which hide under these leaves.Apart from that, there are some foods that are not to be fed at any cost to turkeys, whether they be wild or domesticated. This includes food containing herbicides or insecticides, processed food, moldy, stale, or wet bread can cause digestion problems.Further, low-quality chicken feed, onions, raw meat, fruit pits and seeds, raw and uncooked beans must not be fed as they possess a choking hazard. Chocolate, avocados can be toxic for the birds along with leaves of the eggplant or tomato plant, dairy products like milk, cheese, or butter.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for what do wild turkeys eat, then why not take a look at what do tree frogs eat or turkey facts.
Turkeys are a species of bird belonging to the genus Meleagris that are native to the region of North America.
