The turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris, native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey of eastern and central North America and the ocellated turkey of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Males of both turkey species have a distinctive fleshy wattle, called a snood, that hangs from the top of the beak. They are among the largest birds in their ranges. As with many large ground-feeding birds, the male is bigger and much more colorful than the female.
Turkey (bird)
Egg of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
A male ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata) with a blue head
Plate 1 of The Birds of America by John James Audubon, depicting a wild turkey
The wild turkey is an upland game bird native to North America, one of two extant species of turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey, which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey.
Image: Gall dindi
Image: Wild Turkey (female) Meleagris gallopavo, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Woodbridge, Virginia
Close-up of head features
Closeup of wild turkey tom