Discuss: Can Turkeys fly?

[usonian]

Discussion material here:



"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Most say no.

[paulkienitz]

1. Depends on the turkey.

[usonian]

2. Looks wild

[haele]

3. Yes, but not if pushed out of a helicopter...

Not very high or very far.

[fargone]

4. Wild turkeys roost in trees

Domestic ones may have trouble jus t walking

[Enter stage left]

5. Wild turkeys do fly, but usually short flights to avoid predators.

[allegorical oracle]

9. We have tons of wild turkeys everywhere, here. They fly short distances, but doubt

they could survive if dropped out of a plane. They don't have much wingspan for their weight.

[xmas74]

6. Arthur Carlson, Herb Tarlek and Les Nessman

Winner of the Buckeye News Award would tell you no, they cannot.

[usonian]

7. Guess who's not coming for dinner.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Wild, native North American turkeys can fly, actually pretty well. The Southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey ...

.... once commonly misbelieved to have been imported from Turkey and hence known as "Turkey bustards", were imported to replace the nearly extinct wild American Bustard as a food source, but were domesticated from the beginning, though some have escaped and interbred. Domestication has produced a flightless bird now described as a separate subspecies from the wild bird.

Interestingly, the bird was domesticated in Pre-Columbian times by natives of Central America, and possibly by a more northern native population as well.

The return of the wild North American turkey from the brink of extinction has been an unheralded success story, preceding the similar recovery efforts made on the part of the California condor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_turkey

[allegorical oracle]

10. Have watched Florida wild turkeys for 40+ years. On the ground, they remain in flocks. Have

never seen a flock take off and fly anywhere -- even when chased by a dog. They just run like crazy, disperse, and hop-fly to lower tree branches.

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Well, it's Florida. :) Seriously, though, there's a separate subspecies in FL. They may behave differently.

https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/birds/game-birds/wild-turkeys/

[H2O Man]

14. I've seen numerous

flocks of them take off flying. And plenty that just run when they see something approaching. (upstate NY)

[H2O Man]

13. In the northeast,

there is a type of thorn apple that has long thorns on it. Pre-Columbus, a thorn was bent in half and put through a kernal of corn, with the thorn having a string made from plant fiber from inner bark, tied to a shrub or tree. A turkey eats the corn, and the thorn pops open, creating something similar to a fish hook that gets stuck in the bird's throat. It sounds a tad cruel, but there were not grocery stores back then.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. Very interesting ! But ... I'd never heard of a thorn apple. :) Oh, It's Jimson weed !

Interesting story about Jimson weed. Noting that it wasn't easily harmed by cold weather, a farmer tried grafting tomato plants onto a Jimson weed stalk. It seemed to work, and his tomato shoots survived late into the season. But his family landed in the hospital with severe alkaloid poisoning, because the Jimson weed produced the toxins within its roots and leaves, which then infused its way into the tomatoes.

https://archive.org/details/medicaldetective0000roue/page/170/mode/2up?q=tomato

[H2O Man]

11. Yes.

As I noted on another thread, I used to raise turkey for pets. I had a friend who would take a few wild turkey eggs from nests in the spring, and we'd put them in the domestic birds' nests. Both can fly, though domestic ones for only short distances -- it depends upon what you feed them, I suppose, so the ones fattened for market likely never do. I did have one tom that flew out of the fence to "attack" a state trooper's car, due to flashing lights, which was actually funny. Even the trooper thought it was funny.

Wild turkey can fly both higher and for longer distances. A guy where I worked had the windshield on his van smashed by one that flew out of some pine trees along a highway. Wild turkeys have much more dark meat, which is perfect for making pemmican with. It has enough tallow so that you don't need to add anything but dried fruit. We use blueberries primarily, but it is good with any of the wild berries that grow in this area.

[chowmama]

15. We have a lot of wild turkeys in the Twin Cities

I've seen them flap up to a garage roof and such. I've never seen them take a long flight like a hawk or such.

I don't actually know how much escape opportunities they need around here. If you get too close, the male of the group usually starts approaching with a look in his eye that makes you want to apologize and turn around.

[Angleae]

17. Wild turkeys can, domesticated (i.e. farmed) can't.

Although I don't know if it is because domesticated ones are physically incapable of flying or just don't know how. Keep in mind, we're talking about one of the most stupid creatures on the planet. One that needs to have shiny things put in their feed to attraction them to it so they eat.

[Unwind Your Mind]

18. They definitely fly up into the trees to escape the dogs

I’ve seen that a few times myself, happy dogs 🐶

[KentuckyWoman]

19. Flying turkeys

I personally know someone who works R&D for a glass manufacturer. He gets paid to shoot thawed turkeys, 2x4s etc at windows.

[DFW]

20. Every time Trump takes Air Force One

Turkeys fly