Wild Turkey, Melegris gallopavo

Wild Turkey, Melegris gallopavo. Photographs taken in the coastal region of Guatemala, February 2020. Photographs courtesy of Dr. Tom Bartol, Carlsbad, California.

The Wild Turkey, Melegris gallopavo, is a member of the Phasianidae Family of Pheasants, Grouse and Allies. They are large in stature. In Mexico they are found in the central plateau in the States of Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit and Jalisco. Historically there was a subspecies that ranged from the States of Michoacán on the West Coast to Veracruz on the East Coast and south to Oaxaca that are now believed to be extinct in the wild. From a conservation perspective the Wild Turkey is currently considered to be of Least Concern with widely distributed increasing populations. They are found in pine and pine-oak forests and in grassy savanna. They are ground foragers that consume acorn and nuts in the fall, winter and early spring; they consume berries, forbs, grasses and sedges within forests in late spring and move to adjacent open areas in the summer where they consume fruits, grasses and insects.