Species Turkey Bird

Turkey Bird

The turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris, which is native to the Americas. One species, Meleagris gallopavo (commonly known as the wild turkey), is native to the forests of North America, mainly Mexico and the United States. The domestic turkey is a descendant of this species. The other living species is Meleagris ocellata or the ocellated turkey, native to the forests of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Males of both turkey species have a distinctive fleshy wattle or protuberance that hangs from the top of the beak (called a snood). They are among the largest birds in their ranges. As in many galliformes, the male is larger and much more colorful than the female.

Turkeys are classed in the family of Phasianidae (pheasants, partridges, francolins, junglefowl, grouse and relatives) in the taxonomic order of Galliformes. The genus Meleagris is the only genus in the subfamily Meleagridinae, formerly known as the family Meleagrididae but now subsumed within the family Phasianidae.

When Europeans first encountered turkeys in America, they incorrectly identified the birds as a type of guineafowl (Numididae). Guineafowl were also known as turkey fowl (or turkey hen and turkey cock) because they were imported to Central Europe through Turkey.

The name turkey fowl, shortened to just the name of the country, stuck as the name of the North American bird. In 1550, the English navigator William Strickland, who had introduced the turkey into England, was granted a coat of arms including a "turkey-cock in his pride proper"

Several other birds that are sometimes called turkeys are not particularly closely related: the Australian brushturkey is a megapode, and the bird sometimes known as the "Australian turkey" is the Australian bustard, a gruiform. The anhinga (Anhinga rufa) is sometimes called a water turkey, from the shape of its tail when the feathers are fully spread for drying.