When scouting for spring turkeys, hunters have a tendency to pay attention their efforts on roosting areas, clearings, and journey routes between the 2 areas. This method is sensible, as gobblers are extra targeted on strutting their stuff than securing a meal this time of yr. However turkeys must eat, too, and listening to meals sources can repay.
Understanding what wild turkeys eat—and why they eat sure meals at sure occasions of the yr—is effective information for turkey hunters. From a administration perspective, it might probably assist us gauge the productiveness of various habitats. And from a scouting perspective, it might probably assist us pinpoint areas the place birds are prone to congregate.
What Forms of Meals Do Wild Turkeys Eat?
Wild turkeys are true omnivores. This implies they’ll eat absolutely anything they will discover, together with grasses, invertebrates, forbs, seeds, tubers, nuts, and fruits, together with the occasional small mammal, reptile, or amphibian. Wild turkeys residing in farm nation may also search out waste grain, chaff, and different agricultural leftovers.
Whereas vegetation make up nearly all of a wild turkey’s annual weight loss program, invertebrates—particularly grubs and bugs—are vital sources of protein for the birds. Meaning wild turkeys do eat capsule bugs, grasshoppers, beetles, snails, caterpillars, and ticks.
Turkeys forage for these meals sources all through the day by scratching and pecking on the floor. The meals is saved within the chicken’s crop (an enlarged chamber within the esophagus) earlier than it’s swallowed and digested.
Examine a Turkey’s Crop
All 5 subspecies of untamed turkeys in North America eat this weight loss program. The particular contents of their weight loss program varies considerably by area, nonetheless, and one of the simplest ways to know what turkeys are consuming in your space is to examine the crop of a harvested chicken.
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“Generally you open up their crop and it’s packed full of 1 flower,” says Dr. Mike Chamberlain, a lifelong turkey hunter and one of many nation’s main wild turkey researchers. “Different occasions you’ll see ten various things.”
How the Diets of Totally different Turkey Subspecies Range by Area
A wild turkey’s wide-ranging weight loss program is a part of why the birds might be present in each U.S. state outdoors of Alaska. And whereas numerous homegrown turkey hunters image hardwood forests within the East as quintessential turkey nation, wild turkey flocks additionally discover methods to thrive within the swamps, mountains, plains, and deserts. Here’s a common breakdown of every subspecies and the key meals they have an inclination to deal with.
Jap Turkeys
Jap turkeys are the most important and most ample subspecies of untamed turkey discovered within the U.S. They inhabit each state east of the Mississippi River, the place they key in on exhausting mast similar to acorns and beechnuts, together with seeds from native grasses and the flowers of herbaceous vegetation. As with the opposite subspecies, bugs additionally play a useful function of their weight loss program.
Jap turkeys within the Midwest are particularly keen on waste grains and different agricultural meals sources, together with soy beans, corn, and wheat. A examine carried out in Wisconsin checked out 100 hunter-harvested birds and located that the birds’ crops contained roughly twice as a lot waste grain (roughly 54 p.c) as wild vegetation (roughly 27 p.c).
Rio Grande Turkeys
Rios are native to the semi-arid southern Nice Plains states, together with Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Texas. They rely closely on oaks, pecans, and different mast timber, together with bugs and quite a lot of grasses. Researchers with Texas A&M discovered {that a} random group of Rio Grande turkeys within the state had a well-balanced weight loss program consisting of “about 36 p.c grasses, 29 p.c bugs, 19 p.c mast, and 16 p.c forbs.”
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Hydration can be extraordinarily vital to Rios and different wild turkeys in arid states. Whereas they get most of this from floor water—creek and ponds, for instance—turkeys additionally hydrate by consuming succulent vegetation, which comprise extra water than different vegetation. Accordingly, prickly pears and different cacti might be vital meals sources for Rio Grande turkeys in deserts and scrubland habitats.
Merriam’s Turkeys
A resident of the mountains and excessive plains within the Western U.S., Merriam’s turkeys inhabit some hard-to-reach locales. Whereas they like nuts from hardwood timber, they’ll additionally eat the cones and seedlings from ponderosa pines and different coniferous timber.
Tender grass shoots and buds are different springtime favorites, and Merriam’s turkeys typically feed solely on grasshoppers at sure occasions of the yr, in accordance with the Wyoming Sport and Fish Division. Merriam’s turkeys residing in cattle nation may also consider feedlots, scrounging for leftover alfalfa, barley, and different waste grains.
In a examine carried out on Merriam’s turkeys in South Dakota’s Black Hills, the U.S. Fish and WIldlife Service discovered that “grownup birds consumed 78 totally different sorts of meals” all year long. However 4 most important meals teams dominated their crops: ponderosa pine seeds, bearberries (also referred to as manzanita), inexperienced grasses, and arthropods (primarily grasshoppers and beetles).
Osceola Turkeys
Discovered solely in Florida, these colourful turkeys are at dwelling within the swamps and the open pastures within the inside of the state. Birds within the swamp have a tendency to include extra frogs, salamanders, and different small amphibians into their weight loss program, whereas dryland birds focus extra on grubs and acorns. Favourite meals additionally embrace berries, wild grapes, ferns, and different vegetation.
Gould’s Turkeys
The rarest of the 5 wild turkey subspecies, Gould’s turkeys can solely be discovered within the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. (Their vary additionally stretches south into Mexico.) Their weight loss program is just like Rio Grande turkeys and consists of numerous species of grasses and cactus, with the occasional lizard thrown in. Additionally they key in on piñon nuts and berries from the scraggly juniper timber which can be frequent all through the Southwest.
Turkey Meals Varies by Season
Apart from the regional availability of sure meals, the time of yr additionally dictates what wild turkeys eat. It is because some meals are extra plentiful at sure occasions of the yr—but additionally as a result of turkeys change their habits together with the seasons. Over the course of his 30-plus years learning America’s largest recreation chicken, Chamberlain has watched these dietary shifts happen yr in and yr out like clockwork.
“If you happen to have a look at turkeys throughout the yr, their fall and winter is tied to meals,” Chamberlain says. “That’s all they’re nervous about, surviving and consuming.”
Arduous mast supplies a high-energy, high-protein meals supply to get the birds by way of the colder months. And when acorns are plentiful within the fall and winter months, you possibly can typically discover turkeys in and round hardwoods. Timber stands inside putting distance of a farmer’s subject or a rancher’s feedlot are even higher locations to look.
“As quickly as turkeys come out of winter, they use utterly totally different habitats. I name it the spring shift,” Chamberlain says. “The explanation for that’s they have an inclination to return to the identical locations yearly to breed.”
Turkey habitat within the spring revolves round clearings and open areas, Chamberlain explains. Turkeys want to have the ability to see each other, and the gobblers want loads of room to strut. However these open, grassy areas present loads of turkey meals, too. The birds usually key in on the contemporary shoots, grasses, and different inexperienced forage cropping up in fields in the course of the springtime. Bugs additionally begin to play a bigger function of their weight loss program because the climate warms.
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Because the breeding season wraps up, hens shift their focus to nesting. Feminine turkeys want a protected place to cover and sit on their eggs for a month. Shrubbier, grassier areas with dense cowl normally match the invoice.
Then comes the summer season, which is a plentiful time for hungry turkeys. All kinds of edible vegetation can be found, from blackberries to contemporary buds and flower bulbs. Insect populations additionally peak throughout this season and play an much more vital function in a turkey’s weight loss program. Poults specifically want a gentle weight loss program of bugs for wholesome development throughout their first few months of life. The Michigan Division of Pure Assets factors out {that a} typical poult’s weight loss program will encompass 75 p.c bugs or extra throughout their first summer season. Grownup turkeys additionally molt within the summertime, and bugs give them the protein they should develop new feathers.
“Then,” says Chamberlain, “they rinse and repeat that cycle yearly.”
Turkey Hunters Ought to Give attention to Meals within the Spring
Spring turkey hunters who additionally chase deer in the course of the rut can have a look at meals sources for turkeys in a lot the identical approach. Whereas male birds is likely to be extra desirous about mating than consuming, the females are consuming like loopy in preparation for nesting season. (Simply think about how a lot you’d be consuming in the event you had been on the brink of sit in a single spot and quick for a month.) Discovering wild turkey meals sources will help you discover the hens. And as soon as you discover hens, you’ll discover the toms.
“If you consider it from a hen’s perspective, she’s stocking up on assets, taking good care of herself, rising fats shops, and on the brink of produce eggs,” Chamberlain explains. “And toms are going to areas the place they will work together with hens. So, by default, they’re going to finish up in areas with top quality forage.”
Chamberlain says that in all his years chasing gobblers, he’s observed that they will solely strut for thus lengthy earlier than they must cease and eat. This typically occurs in the course of the afternoon, when most birds can have labored up an urge for food.
“They’ll appear oblivious to meals for hours and hours,” he says, “and all of the sudden you’ll get a tom who takes a break and gorges himself on one thing out there.”
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As for particular meals sources that hunters can goal within the spring, Chamberlain factors to contemporary inexperienced vegetation and flowers. These meals sources appeal to bugs, which supplies the turkeys a two-for-one particular they will’t resist.
“Take note of something that’s attracting bugs. The [bugs] are going to trace succulent forage, after which because the vegetation turns into extra rank, they’ll transfer on,” he says. “Turkeys aren’t solely consuming the bugs, although. They’re consuming the seeds and inexperienced forage as properly.
“One other hyperlink I’ve observed personally is between bugs and showy, engaging flowers. The birds present up and so they can eat the flowers, however they will additionally work on the bugs which can be interested in the flowers.”
Meals Plots for Turkeys
Whereas hunters are likely to affiliate meals plots with deer greater than something, they will play a useful function in supplementing a wild turkey’s weight loss program—particularly when pickings are slim in the course of the fall and winter months. Additionally, in the identical approach they appeal to whitetails, meals plots will help draw turkeys in commonly and set up predictable motion patterns.
As an added bonus, turkeys and deer prefer to eat numerous the identical issues, together with oats, clover, soybeans, and corn. Because of this the meals plot you planted for whitetails ought to usher in loads of Jap turkeys, too.
Native wildflowers are good additions for turkey-specific meals plots. So are bunch grasses, which give good cowl for the birds. Chufa is one other standard crop planted particularly for wild turkeys. Additionally marketed as Turkey Gold by the Nationwide Wild Turkey Federation, chufa is an unique number of the native nutsedge. It produces a small tuber that grows underground and is just like a peanut. Chufa usually grows anyplace that corn will. It does higher in hotter climates, nonetheless, and is hottest within the South.
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When contemplating areas for turkey-specific meals plots, deal with the perimeters of hardwood forests, the place the birds can retreat to cowl and discover good roosting timber. Shut proximity to water is one other vital consideration.
However even in the event you don’t have the time or the property to plant a meals plot for turkeys, there’s loads of meals {that a} wild turkey will eat. Actually, it might sound formidable to pinpoint one specific meals supply throughout turkey season. However the extra you watch wild turkeys, the extra you’ll begin to perceive their consuming habits. After just a few seasons of this, you’ll have a a lot better concept of what wild turkeys eat in your neck of the woods. And also you’ll be ready to interrupt their breakfast.
