Blane Klemek Outdoors: Turkey courtship season is a spectacle like no other

Anyone living in northern Minnesota from the North Dakota border and east to Lake Superior can attest that wild turkeys continue to increase in abundance and distribution.

In fact, there isn’t a county in Minnesota today that doesn’t support wild turkeys. Call it a wildlife success story or whatever you like, there’s no question that this special species of native wild bird has "taken off."

I first became acquainted with a Minnesota wild turkey about 25 years ago while driving to Camp Ripley north of Little Falls. A single bird crossed the highway near the front entrance to the military facility. A few years later near Keokuk, Iowa, and parts of bordering Illinois when DNR sent me to Mississippi River’s Pool 19 to assist biologists up and down the Mississippi Flyway to capture and band scaup, a species of duck, I watched flocks of wild turkeys feeding and courting along edges of woodlands and farm fields everywhere.

Fast forward to today, this highly successful and resilient native bird is here to enjoy and appreciate throughout the Northland. This is the time of year when it’s especially fun to watch wild turkeys.

Springtime is their breeding season. Mature male birds, called toms or gobblers, are busy searching for hens, fighting and chasing rival males, and displaying, courting, and vocalizing. It’s a spectacle like no other and worth seeking out to see for yourself.

A mature gobbler, named as such because of his amazing and familiar gobbling vocalization, is an impressive and large bird. Reaching weights of 25 pounds and sometimes slightly more, mature male turkeys are formidable, beautiful, and awe-inspiring all rolled into one. When excited, his naked head turns blue in color. His snood, wattle, and caruncles — fleshy growths around the face, neck and chest — turn bright red.

The well-known display whereby the male turkey puffs out his body feathers while fanning his tail in a peacock-like fashion and dragging his primary wing feathers on the ground as he struts and vocalizes strange, guttural and drumming sounds from deep within his chest, is a nature show worth tuning into.

Such displays, vocalizations and sounds are orchestrated by courting gobblers to not only intimidate competing males but to also impress hens. As a big tom turkey performs his courtship display, even his feathers make noises. As he produces spitting and drumming sounds from his chest, his body stirs in such a way that feathers buzz and whir with motion. Additionally, the tips of his primary wing feathers dragging on the ground create another auditory effect.

The incredibly loud gobbling vocalization is delivered from the throat and is deployed as a means of intimidation and surprise. Like the crow of a barnyard rooster chicken or a wild ring-necked pheasant, the boisterous and resounding gobble of a wild turkey can be heard from a mile away, sometimes further on calm mornings and evenings.

Tom turkeys also gobble from their roosts at sunset and sunrise. Interesting of all wild turkeys, each bird every evening seeks out roosting trees to fly into for the night. Tree selection is based on habitat type, but wherever tall pine trees are available, turkeys seem to prefer such trees. In farm country, turkeys are known to roost on artificial structures such as the rooftops of buildings and utility line transmission towers.

Using a variety of roosting sites bespeaks the wild turkey’s resourcefulness and adaptability. Indeed, wild turkeys occur practically everywhere in North America.

Five subspecies of wild turkeys exist, but the most widespread of them all is the eastern subspecies, which is what we have here in Minnesota. The other subspecies are the Merriam’s, Rio Grande, Osceola or Florida, and Gould’s. The ocellated wild turkey is a separate species altogether and occur in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, northern Belize, and the El Petén region of northern Guatemala.

Each of these turkeys are variable in geographic location and habitat type, body size, plumage patterns and coloration, and behavior.

Even so, there’s no mistaking any of them for anything other than wild turkey.

It’s that time of year once again. Turkey hunting season begins on April 17 and springtime courtships are occurring with most wild birds everywhere. For sure, few courtship performances match that of wild turkeys as we get out and enjoy the great outdoors.

Blane Klemek is a Minnesota DNR wildlife manager. He can be reached at bklemek@yahoo.com.