Did you eat turkey for Thanksgiving this year? Ninety percent of American homes serve turkey for their Thanksgiving meals and believe it or not 525 million pounds of turkey are eaten during this holiday! So, it seems as though most of us enjoy the delicious bird, but how many of us know about its wonder features!

Wild turkeys are very unique and beautiful. Adult males, also known as toms#, are about two feet tall and weigh anywhere from 18 to 25 pounds.

They have a black-brown body with a long beard, made of hair-like feathers, protruding from their chest and a head that is colored with red, blue and white skin.

Males also have leg spurs that can be up to one inch long.

Female birds, also known as hens, weigh anywhere from 8 to 12 pounds and are rusty-brown in color with a gray colored head.

You may identify a turkey by its physical characteristics but you can also identify them by sound.

Male turkeys gobble during the fall and spring to attract female birds.

Females on the other hand do not gobble, but make yelping or clucking noises instead.

However, both turkeys can fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour and are fast on the ground, running at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour.

Wild turkeys are native to North America and at the time of European civilization they occupied all of New York state.

Unfortunately, much of the wild turkey habitat that was available in New York was lost due to the need for timber.

Small farms moved in and turkeys were hunted heavily (no hunting seasons/regulations) all year long.

By the late 1840s, wild turkeys were no longer abundant in New York state.

In the 1900s much of the land in New York was reverting back to brush and woodlands and by 1940 the Southern Tier was capable of supporting a wild turkey population.

In 1948 wild turkeys from northern Pennsylvania crossed into New York and these were the first wild turkeys in New York state since the 1840s, that's 100 years!

Today, wild turkeys are abundant in most parts of New York state.

Here, turkeys have plenty of food, which includes: tubers, dragonflies, snails, roots, flowers, fruits and grasshoppers in the spring and summer, beechnuts, acorns, grapes, corn and oats in the fall, and green plants, nuts, seeds and fruits during the winter.

Turkeys are very beneficial birds and now that you have a general understanding of their history, you can appreciate them all year round.

For questions about wild turkeys please contact Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County at 255-1183.

Renee Jensen is a community educator of Environmental Issues at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County.