Beginning in 1621 a day of thanksgiving was set aside by early colonists following the fall harvest, and Thanksgiving Day became an American tradition. In the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln proclaimed a National Day of Fasting and Prayer. Later that same year he proclaimed the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving, a day to give thanks to God for the blessings bestowed upon the United States. Then, in 1941, Congress set the observation of Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November.

     While in many cases it is no longer observed in the same spirit as by our forefathers, it remains a special day unique to the United States and Canada (which observes it six weeks earlier). During those early observances, the turkey was an integral part of the celebration menu and today it remains inseparably attached to the day.

     Originally, the wild turkey was found exclusively in North America; a unique bird unlike any other in Creation. But Englishmen arriving to Virginia and New England and many Europeans were already familiar with the turkey in domesticated form. How could that be if it was exclusively found in North America? 

     It was the Spaniards in 1519, led by Cortez, who found the turkey in eastern Mexico both in a wild state and as domesticated by the Aztecs. They named it “pavo,” assuming it was a type of peacock because of its strutting and displaying. Later it became known as the “pavo real,” or “royal peacock.” Cortez took some turkeys back to Spain in about 1525 where it became a sensation as a new food. Here it was domesticated, bred, and spread to other countries.

     The French called it “dindon,” meaning “from India,” assuming it had come from the east. By 1530 it had spread to Germany where it was called “kalekutish hum.” The Scandinavians named it “kalkon.” Apparently confused by the variety of names and where it came from, the English placed its origin as being from Turkey, so it became known as “turkey.” Some naturalists believe the name came about from one of the turkey’s call of “turk, turk, turk.” Yet another historian figures it came from a corruption of an old American Indian name for the bird, described as “firkee.”

     Actually, the Spanish explorer, Coronado was the first to view the bird in the United States in 1540, during his expedition into New Mexico. So it was nearly a century later that Englishmen arriving to Virginia saw the turkey in the wild. Ultimately, their domestic bird escapees mixed with the native wild birds to give us, in part at least, the turkeys we have today.

     The wild turkey was originally found in all or parts of 39 states and one Canadian Province. It is difficult to imagine that five decades ago, the wild turkey was almost extirpated from Virginia. Prior to colonization of the eastern United States, the wild turkey occurred in all sections of the Commonwealth. Early Virginia consisted of vast tracts of hardwoods and mixed woodlands as well as numerous natural openings all of which provided excellent habitat for wild turkeys.

     The turkey was important to early American Indians not only as a readily available food source, but also for its feathers and leg spurs, which were used for ornamentation and for arrows and arrowheads. It became equally important to those first English settlers in Virginia as well as succeeding generations of early European Americans. The turkey and its gastronomic qualities, plus its relative abundance and the ease of hunting it, made it popular with early colonists and helped a growing country with an added food supply.

     As Virginia became more heavily populated, larger tracts of timber were cut and land was cleared for agriculture and dwellings. Few attempts were made at reforestation. The vast forests appeared to be inexhaustible. As they disappeared, turkey populations declined. In addition, market hunting of what seemed to be an infinite resource was common and no protection was afforded them. By 1900, wild turkeys were totally extirpated from many areas of Virginia and they were becoming increasingly rare in many others.

     In 1912, the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill prohibiting the sale of many native birds, including the wild turkey. Four years later, the Virginia Game Department was created, and a corps of Game Wardens was established to protect wildlife from continued exploitation. In 1929, the renamed Virginia Game Commission initiated a restocking program utilizing pen-reared birds. Turkeys were reared in captivity, then released in those areas they previously inhabited. The only technique known at the time, it became obvious after a number of years that it wasn’t working.

     In 1935, the Virginia Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at Virginia Tech was established. One of its first projects was a complete study of the wild turkey in Virginia. The knowledge gained from this and similar studies were destined to improve conditions for the wild turkey.

     There are two species of wild turkey with a number of sub species. The Mexican turkey and a sub species, the Oscelated turkey of the Yucatan Peninsula, are the turkeys Cortez found. The others are the Eastern wild turkey, Osceola or Florida wild turkey, Merriam’s wild turkey, Gould’s wild turkey, and the Rio Grande wild turkey.

     Actually, the turkey is our largest wild chicken, related to the grouse, pheasant, and quail. Some noticeable similarities are the structure of their feet, bills, and stiff, rounded wings. Also, like their smaller cousins the turkey gobbler performs a distinctive courtship display to attract hens. The grouse drum, droop their wings and fan their tail; prairie chickens and sharp-tailed grouse boom and dance; pheasants strut and crow; and quail strut and call.

     The turkey gobbler’s courtship display consists of puffing up his large breast, drooping and dragging his wings, and fanning its tail, then going into a strut and gobbling with great enthusiasm. The gobbler will gather and mate with a harem of about four to six hens. While turkey gobblers do not defend a territory, they will defend his group of hens. A turkey gobbler may have a range of four to five miles during breeding. The hens will spend considerable time with the male early in spring, but as nesting, egg laying, and incubation begins, she becomes more secretive. 

     The nest is a well-concealed, shallow depression in the ground alongside a log or downed tree branch, with grasses or vegetation covering it and lined with leaves, grasses, and feathers. Egg laying starts in late-March, continuing through April with an average clutch being 12 eggs. The incubation period is about 28 days, usually peaking through early April to early May. Most nesting losses are caused either by bad weather, disturbance, and desertion.

     After the young hatch, they go through the most critical period in their life cycle. Weather, drowning, disease, molestation of the broods, mowing, free-roving dogs, fire, and simply getting lost account for most losses of young birds. There is some predation by great horned owls, bobcats, and foxes. Despite high mortality rates, the hens will raise a good proportion of her brood to maturity and into the fall. At about four weeks of age, they can fly for short distances and begin roosting in trees with the adults. They become somewhat independent at about three months of age but still remain near the hen. During the fall and winter, turkeys travel and feed in family groups which are normally made up of the spring broods of one or more adult hens. Ordinarily there are also one or more adult gobblers with or near the main flock.

     Wild turkeys are birds of mixed hardwoods of oak, beech, and dogwoods, often with a smattering of laurel, holly, rhododendron, and wild grape, as well as scattered stands of pine and cedar. Forest habitat of this type along with interior or adjacent fields and clearings provide the big bird with its basic needs. 

     The turkey’s diet is about 95 percent vegetable matter including foods such as acorns, beechnuts, dogwood berries, wild grapes, grass seeds, clovers, honeysuckles and other greens, as well as grasshoppers and other insects. Wildlife managers of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries have created linear brood strips in many wildlife management areas, which are long cleared strips planted to clover and orchard grass. These provide feeding areas for turkey hens and their broods. They also attract all manner of insects, especially grasshoppers, and natural fruit and seed-bearing plants such as pokeweed grow up on the edges.
In recent years turkeys have been adapting well to changes in forestry and agricultural practices and management. While the early turkeys were birds of mature old growth forests, the modern day wild turkeys have adapted well to a more diversified type of habitat. All through the 70s and 90s, Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologists and wildlife managers have been trapping turkeys in areas of abundance and translocating them to other areas. In 1998, turkeys were released on Eastern Shore and once again the wild turkey is found in all Virginia counties with suitable habitat. It’s a more versatile bird and they can be seen commonly throughout the seasons. 

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