Tom Turkey Photo Print

"Tom Turkey, Painterly" by Catherine Sherman. A male turkey displays his dramatic plumage and very interesting appearance in a pen at a children's zoo. The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is endemic to North America, but have been introduced worldwide and are often domesticated as poultry on farms. and they are popular as food and for hunting. Male turkeys, also called toms or gobblers, are large, round birds with powerful muscles and colorful plumage. Females are smaller and without many of the male's facial features. The males are most easily recognizable by their tail fans, “beard” of thin feathers on the chest and colorful facial wattles, including a snood, which is a long fleshy appendage over a male's beak. Wild turkey plumage has many different shades of color and iridescence. Although turkeys are usually seen foraging on the ground, they are good fliers and roost in trees at night.