Wild Turkey

Tweet of the Day is the voice of birds and our relationship with them, from around the world.

Chris Packham presents the wild turkey of North American woodlands. We are so used to seeing mass-produced captive turkeys (the centrepiece for many a Thanksgiving meal in the United States and Canada) that the sight and sound of a displaying male wild turkey is a real surprise. With his tail fanned and red wattles a-quiver; he struts-his-stuff in a woodland clearing to win the favours of the less flamboyant hens. There are now around 7 million wild turkeys in the USA. But it wasn't always so. Wild turkeys were nearly wiped out in many states by over-shooting and woodland clearance. Their numbers fell from tens of millions in pre-Columbus days, to about thirty thousand by the last Century. Land which had been previously cleared for farming was allowed to return to woodland. Wild turkeys were released back into areas where they'd been wiped out. This along with hunting controls and behavioural research allowed their numbers to increase and their spectacular displays are once again a common sight in many areas of the USA.