It’s the Testosterone Talking


Wild Turkey Males Sorting Out Dominance

Birds of the World says,

Fighting begins with mutual threat and progresses to striking with wings and kicking. Eventually one bird grabs the other’s beak or snood and birds entwine necks, pushing against each other with breasts. Fights usually end by one bird gaining advantage and getting beak hold on skin of back of opponent’s neck. With this hold, winning bird forces opponent’s head to ground, until loser is able to twist free

That’s pretty much what you are seeing here. There are dozens of Wild Turkeys at Cave Creek Lodge in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeast Arizona. The males were strutting their stuff to the massively disinterested hens. Fights were uncommon. At night, when the turkey fly into trees to roost, the males call. Each new call triggers a cascade of calls from neighbors. It’s like each bird has to have the last word.

It’s a guy thing.

WC is birding, as noted earlier. Posts will be brief for a while, but the photo should be pretty good.

(Credit for the punch line goes WC’s long-time birding buddy and America’s Tallest Birder, Dave Haenni.)

One thought on “It’s the Testosterone Talking

  1. Turkeys with brothers seek females as a pair. Evolutionary pressures are thought to favor this approach because if my genes aren’t accepted then at least my brother’s will be. I find turkeys in the wild almost as fascinating as moose. Be well. TR

    Like

Comments are closed.