What is a Group of Turkeys Called? Turkey Power

Goble! Goble! Goble! This is the sound you hear from a group of Turkeys. Turkeys are large domesticated birds reared for their meat and used for games and are most common to Northern America.

What is a group of Turkeys called? How many Turkeys make up a group? How were they discovered? This and many more are questions contained in this article with superb answers to them, surely you want to find out more about these big birds, don’t you?

Then without further ado, let’s get gobbling!

 

Read also: Where Does Butterflies Live? Discover Their Habitat

 

 Brief Facts About Turkeys

This article is not meant to just give you direct answers but also to enlighten you more on the big bird. Turkeys have been known to be one of the biggest birds in the world, and are most popular for “Thanksgiving”. Below are highlighted facts you should know about Turkey:

• Nationality: Although turkeys can be found almost everywhere in the world, from Europe down to Africa, they are native to the Americas.
• Size: In most animals as well as insects, the females are usually bigger and larger than the males, though the male is still in charge. But in some, the males are bigger and larger than the females, and the turkey is no exemption.
• Origin: Turkeys were first domesticated in ancient Mexico, for food and their cultural and symbolic significance.
• Aggressiveness: Wild turkeys are very aggressive, and will attack if they feel you be a subordinate.
• Desnooding: The snood (beak) of a turkey is always cut when they are still chicks to prevent them from pecking on humans or other animals and causing serious injury.
• Celebrations: During a celebration known as “thanksgiving”, the turkey is usually the main ingredient of the day. So pitiful! but it is to be eaten, right? (smiles).
• Courtship Display: In courtship display, the male spreads his tail, droops his wings and shakes the quills audibly, retracts his head, struts about, and utters speedy gobbling sounds.
• Food: The wild turkey prefers dwelling near water and feeds on seeds, insects, and an occasional frog or lizard.
• Flight: When alarmed, it may run rapidly to cover. It can fly strongly only for short distances (about 0.4 km, or 0.25 miles).
• Sight: Turkeys see in color and have a very good daytime vision.
• Mood: A turkey’s snood can turn into several different colors based on their mood from blue to white to pink to very red.
• June is considered National Turkey Lover’s Month

Now that you obviously have an idea about these big birds, let’s proceed!

 

Read also: What Do Grasshoppers Eat? Discover Their Diet

 

What is the History of the Turkeys?

Where did these birds come from? As stated earlier, Turkeys were first domesticated in ancient Mexico, for food and their cultural and symbolic significance. The Spaniards brought Mexican turkeys to Europe in the year 1519 and arrived in England in 1524.

Domestic turkeys come from Wild Turkey (a species that is native only to the Americas. Spanish traders brought some that had been reared by indigenous Americans to Europe and Asia. The turkey got its name because it reached European tables through shipping routes that passed through Turkey, amazing isn’t it? In a place where fine dining was made up of storks, herons, and bustards, the fleshy turkey became a sensation.

Later on, when English settlers arrived in America, they were greatly perplexed to find the same birds running wild and free, and giving a wide range of satisfaction thanks to their natural diet of chestnuts, beechnuts, walnuts, etc. This wild yet fleshy bed is a beautiful, genuinely American bird that tastes wonderful and had enormous economic value for the colonists.

Below are the major purposes the turkey played to the Mexicans:

• The Mexicans relied on this mother natures recipe as a major source of protein.
• They utilized its feathers extensively for decorative purposes.
• This bird was used for religious purposes by the Mexicans as they dedicated two religious festivals a year to the turkeys, and it was not unusual having over 1000 turkeys sold each day in the Mexican market. The popularity of the turkey spread beyond the Mexicans to other tribes beyond Mexico by the time of the European arrival.

The wild turkey is one of the two species of turkey in the world. The other is the Ocellated turkeys (domesticated) of Mexico and Central America. This turkey has a lustrous feather of blue, green, and bronze, and a featherless head spotted with red and orange fleshy nodes. Males possess a unique crown like a cap that enlarges during the mating period. They (domestic turkeys) make a whistling noise instead of the clucks and gobbles that were fond of the wild turkey.

 

 

How many Turkeys Make a Group?

Turkeys are very social animals and are fond of forming groups. Sometimes they may form a large group of 20-40, but all this depends on the number of turkeys in your poultry (even if you have as much as 200, they will all form one group). Both wild and domestic turkeys prefer to live and fly together for safety but group forming is more common in the domestic turkeys and lesser in the wild ones.

There’s a portion of the bible written “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there”, the point you should grab here is as long as the turkeys are more than one, a group has been formed. It all depends on the number of available turkeys in that area.

 

Read also: Do Grasshoppers Fly? Movement Of Grasshoppers

 

What is a Group of Turkeys Called?

Finally, to the big question, how do I refer to a group of turkeys? Rafter is the technical term used to refer to a large group of turkeys. If you are just a bird lover then you may refer a group of turkeys as a gang or flock but as an experienced person who is educated in livestock and poultry then you would refer to them as a “rafter”.

When buildings were first constructed, people usually found turkeys in the rafters of their barns besides, it’s a great place to settle, is out of the weather, it’s high up and is clear of predators. Rafters had all the requirements of the turkeys which is why they were mostly found there. This is why they were referred to as rafters.

 

 

Finally

Goble! Goble! Goble! this article has been able to provide answers to this ravaging question “what is a group of turkeys called? and we’re glad to have gobbled this answer directly to your search box. For further inquiries contact us and find out more. Meanwhile, don’t turkey around!

About The Author