Pages

2018-02-23

Facts You Probably Know About The Ocellated Turkey

By Virginia Clark


We are all probably familiar with bird. They can be kept for food, commercial purposes or as pets. In the United States, they are probably used mostly on Thanksgiving day. Almost in every home, a turkey is curved. Apart from the delicious bird we all know and love, there is another kind of turkey known as an ocellated turkey.

They all have blue heads, male and female. They also have red nodules sprouting out of their heads. These birds are more colorful compared to the wild turkeys of North America. They can grow for up to 1.2 meters in length. The males have spurred on their legs. These are usually used when two males get into a fight.

Their diet is not that much different from the birds we see at the farm. They are omnivorous in nature. This means like us humans they feed on both meat and vegetables. They eat seeds, berries, leaves insects among a lot of other stuff. The male is known as the gobble while the female is known as a hen. The male gobbles and struts around the hen during mating season to attract it.

They are found in Central America and in Mexico, mainly in Belize and Guatemala. Unfortunately, their population continues to decrease by the day. This is mainly because of the numerous hunts taking place by the locals and the predators. The fact that their habitat is being destroyed is also a major contributor to the decrease in population.

In the early 1900s, these birds had been hunted so much. They almost became extinct. Luckily, a rehabilitation program was introduced, and they were able to repopulate and go back to being large in numbers. As much as much as we seem to think that bird and chicken are related, they are not. Evolution of 45million years ago proves it.

These turkeys have six different species. The first one is the one found on the eastern side of America which the pilgrims used to eat really. This species has extended all the way to Canada. Most people refer to it as the forest bird as it is mainly found in the forest. It is the most dominant species, and it stands at a strong 5million in number.

Studies show that the females prefer males with long snoods. The length of the snood is also used in the determination of the winner when there has been a fight. The male bird has a beard of modified feathers on their breast. This is however not the case for the females. The males are also much larger compared to the females.

The turkeys can run, and they can fly. They prefer running. They are able to run for up to 25 miles per hour. They are also able to run at 55 miles per hour. You can actually be able to tear the difference between a male and a female turkey just by looking at their dropping. The male has a spiral-shaped dropping while a female has J shaped ones.

A collection of related males can go look for females together, but only one have the chance to mate with an individual female. The incubation period for the eggs is 28days.




About the Author:



0 add comment::

Post a Comment

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More