The Most Excellent Turkey

By Terry Rich, Golden Eagle Guest Blogger

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. You have all the warmth of a family gathering without the chaos of Christmas, the dress-up requirement of Easter, or the heat, noise, and melted Jell-O of the 4th of July. I also truly value the practice of being thankful for what you have.  

Throw in a football game or two, bare trees rattling outside the windows, a fire in the fireplace, and it’s pure joy.

Did Someone Mention Food?

And, oh yeah, food. Well, we always have food on our holidays. In fact, as far as I’ve read, every holiday in every culture on earth involves a lot of food, no matter the primary reason for gathering. Some evolutionary biologists might argue that food sharing was THE most important reason for humans to get together in the very old days, never mind various gods or where the sun was.

But for me, it’s not just about any old food. It’s about turkey. On other holidays, you can get stuck with a ham, a roast, or even some hot dishes. But on Thanksgiving, it’s turkey. Look at Norman Rockwell’s famous painting, Freedom From Want. Replace that turkey with anything else, and it doesn’t work.

One of my aunts used to prepare an entire Thanksgiving dinner for 14-18 people on a huge, cast-iron, wood stove in a kitchen that was scarcely large enough to contain it. Having cooked a lot of different things myself, I remain amazed that she could pull off bread, baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, beets, extra stuffing, turkey, and pies by tweaking a wood fire. Did I mention turkey?

How About Turkey?

There is only one species of turkey in the U.S. – the wild turkey – although turkey fans are quick to point out the six regional variations in this species recognized by the American Ornithological Society. One variety or the other occurs from southern Canada south to about halfway into Mexico.

These subspecies vary mainly in the color of the feathers in the tail, back, and breast. The taxonomy and names are messy and have changed many times over the years. So, I won’t try to cover that here. Check them out at Birds of the World Online or at the National Wild Turkey Federation website.

Wild turkeys are not native to Idaho. They were first moved here in 1961, including birds from ten different states. Not surprisingly, birds from western states with habitats similar to ours did best here.

Wild Turkey by Mary Miller Rumple

Ocellated Turkey by Francesco Veronesi

The only other species in this genus (Meleagris) is the spectacular ocellated turkey, which occurs on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and into Belize and Guatemala. Both turkeys are members of the family, Phasianidae. This is a large group with species all over the world. It includes pheasants, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, Old World quail, and peacocks. All of these species are hunted, and they probably all taste delicious. But I will pass on a Thanksgiving peacock.

Centuries of Fine Dining

Wild turkeys have been popular in North America since before Europeans arrived to take over the continent. Turkeys were the second most common vertebrate found by anthropologists in human refuse collections from that time period. Only evidence of white-tailed deer was more frequent.

Wild turkeys weigh between 5 lbs. (small female) and 24 lbs. (large male). Because most birds in the Phasianidae family are wary and hard to get, it makes sense that an ancient hunter would go after this species rather than a grouse (1-2 lbs.) or a quail (1 lb. at most). This simple fact makes it even harder to explain chukar hunters! I know. It’s the journey, not the destination.

Conservation Success Story

The restoration of wild turkeys in North America is one of the great success stories in wildlife conservation. According to the National Wild Turkey Federation, when that organization was created in 1973 there were about 1.3 million wild turkeys. As a result of research and countless conservation projects, there are now around 7 million turkeys – an historically high number.

Early attempts to restore birds into vacant habitat relied on rearing birds in captivity and then turning them loose. This technique mostly failed. A much more successful method has been to capture wild birds and move them. As always, the destination had to have good turkey habitat or that approach wouldn’t have worked either. Well over 200,000 turkeys have been moved during the restoration program.

In some places, the program has been too successful. Turkeys can change the habitat in ways that are harmful to other species. This is a problem in parts of eastern North America where large turkey populations can remove most seeds, acorns, and seedlings from the forest floor. This results in a lack of food and understory vegetation for small birds and other wildlife.

Wild Turkeys by Ceredig Roberts

Getting back to what turkeys need, issues in the West include fire suppression – now a familiar issue in Idaho. Fire suppression allows junipers, ponderosa pines, and other woody species to invade meadows and grassy habitats that turkeys prefer for foraging. As the West continues to dry under climate change, the provision of water will become increasingly important if we want to keep turkeys around.

Another issue is the supply of roosting trees. Turkeys originally chose large trees for a place to spend the night. Around here, those trees are apt to be in the riparian zone or on ranches where irrigation water helped grow big cottonwoods. Up higher in the mountains, big ponderosa pines also served well. As these big trees age, die, and fall apart or are cut for firewood, they’re lost to turkeys, as well as to cavity nesters like woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, and bluebirds.

Idaho Turkeys

Where are turkeys in Idaho? The best way to find out is to ask a turkey hunter. But if she won’t tell you, then go to eBird on the internet, choose “Species Maps” from the menu, and then choose a date range.

How are they doing? According to the Breeding Bird Survey, wild turkeys have increased by over 8% per year over the period 1966-2022 in Idaho. This is a steep rate of increase! But that doesn’t mean they’re common. Their relative abundance is still only 0.29, which you can compare to that of the mallard (3.96). So, yeah, turkeys are still pretty hard to come by in Idaho.

In addition to loving Thanksgiving and a turkey for that day, I’ve also been dedicated to traditional recipes. But one recently discovered recipe that blew me away was Pavo Salvadoreño. You won’t find this in a Norman Rockwell painting. But check it out for another day. It’s amazing! As for tofurkey? Your call.

You can reach Terry at terryrichbrd@gmail.com.

Wild Turkey by Ken Miracle