This lot contains multiple parts and feathers of a Wild Turkey, including both a left and right wing, a tail, wing feathers, covert feathers, and tail feathers.
- Catalog Number:
- 401241
- Object/Specimen Description:
- Specimen Count:
- 1
- Precise Locality:
Patuxent Refuge; United States Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service
- Locality:
- US Mid Atlantic (PA, NJ, MD, DE, DC, VA, WV)
- Collecting Locality:
- North America, United States, Maryland
- Upper Level Taxonomy:
- Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Tetrapoda, Aves, Galliformes, Phasianidae, Meleagridinae
Gallinaceous birds (also known as game birds) spend the majority of their time on the ground, using their feet to scratch for seeds, fruit, and insects. Although their plumage tends to be mottled brown, providing camouflage, they are an attractive meal for terrestrial predators like raccoons and foxes. Their best defenses are their enlarged flight muscles, giving them the ability to take off in a hurry. Those same enlarged muscles are what make chicken breast a substantial meal for humans. But gallinaceous birds reserve flight for real emergencies, usually first running from danger on their strong legs. If running away is not enough, they burst off the ground in nearly vertical flight. When threatened, a gallinaceous bird communicates it with body language. Picture the puffed out chest and raised head of an angry chicken.