Larch Creek Birds

What the birds (and frogs) are saying at a creek in western Washington
Plate 3
Wild Turkey
Julius Bien / John James Audubon, circ
Bird

Wild Turkey

Meleagris gallopavo
Pheasants, Grouse, and Allies (Phasianidae)
Occasional. Never better than a coin toss here in any week of the year.
Field marks
An unmistakable huge ground bird with a bare, warty blue-and-red head, a fan tail and bronze body feathers that gleam in the sun.
Male & female
Males (toms) are much larger, with a 'beard' of bristles on the chest, spurs and a fuller fan; hens are duller and smaller.
Voice
The male's gobble, carrying half a mile in spring; clucks, purrs and yelps from flocks.
Diet
Acorns, seeds, berries, insects, scratched up from the forest floor.
Habitat
Open woodland and farmland edges; roosts in big trees at night and gets up there, improbably, by flying.
Nesting
A ground scrape in cover; 10–14 eggs.
Size
Toms can reach 4 ft long and 20 lb: the weight of a Thanksgiving turkey, which it finds in poor taste.

Not native to Washington; today's flocks descend from birds released for hunting from the 1960s onward. Can run at 20 mph and fly at 50, briefly, which surprises everyone including the turkey.

Season how expected it is here, week by week

50%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecheard at the creektoday
Fig. 1. BirdNET's range model for this location: the chance this species is present in each week of the year. Orange ticks mark weeks it has actually been heard at the creek; the dashed line is today.

At the creek 6 calls on 2 days, first Oct 28, last Oct 31

0100:00 — 0 calls001:00 — 0 calls02:00 — 0 calls03:00 — 0 calls304:00 — 0 calls05:00 — 0 calls06:00 — 0 calls607:00 — 0 calls08:00 — 0 calls09:00 — 0 calls910:00 — 0 calls11:00 — 1 calls12:00 — 1 calls1213:00 — 0 calls14:00 — 1 calls15:00 — 0 calls1516:00 — 0 calls17:00 — 0 calls18:00 — 0 calls1819:00 — 1 calls20:00 — 1 calls21:00 — 0 calls2122:00 — 0 calls23:00 — 1 callssunrisesunset
Fig. 2. When it calls: all detections by hour of day (today's sunrise and sunset shown).
24Oct 2 — 0 callsOct 3 — 0 callsOct 3Oct 4 — 0 callsOct 5 — 0 callsOct 6 — 0 callsOct 7 — 0 callsOct 8 — 0 callsOct 9 — 0 callsOct 10 — 0 callsOct 10Oct 11 — 0 callsOct 12 — 0 callsOct 13 — 0 callsOct 14 — 0 callsOct 15 — 0 callsOct 16 — 0 callsOct 17 — 0 callsOct 17Oct 18 — 0 callsOct 19 — 0 callsOct 20 — 0 callsOct 21 — 0 callsOct 22 — 0 callsOct 23 — 0 callsOct 24 — 0 callsOct 24Oct 25 — 0 callsOct 26 — 0 callsOct 27 — 0 callsOct 28 — 2 callsOct 29 — 0 callsOct 30 — 0 callsOct 31 — 4 callsOct 31
Fig. 3. Calls per day over the last 30 days.

Recordings

Clearest recording · Oct 31 11:15 am · 89% sure
spectrogram
Recent · Oct 31 7:18 pm · 87% sure
spectrogram

From the encyclopedia

The wild turkey is an upland game bird native to North America, one of two extant species of turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey, which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey.
From Wikipedia, "Wild turkey", CC BY-SA 4.0.