page_title: Wild turkey
section_title: Flight
hierarchical_section_title: Wild turkey / Behavior / Flight
caption_attribution_description: English: A wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, in flight just off of Croy Road, near Uvas Canyon County Park in Morgan Hill, California.
context_page_description: The wild turkey is an upland ground bird native to North America, one of two extant species of turkey, and the heaviest member of the diverse Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey. Although native to North America, the turkey probably got its name from the domesticated variety being imported to Britain in ships coming from the Levant via Spain. The British at the time therefore associated the wild turkey with the country Turkey and the name prevails. An alternative theory posits that another bird, a guinea fowl native to Madagascar introduced to England by Turkish merchants, was the original source, and that the term was then transferred to the New World bird by English colonizers with knowledge of the previous species.
context_section_description: Despite their weight, wild turkeys, unlike their domesticated counterparts, are agile, fast fliers. In ideal habitat of open woodland or wooded grasslands, they may fly beneath the canopy top and find perches. They usually fly close to the ground for no more than 400 m (a quarter mile).
  Wild turkeys have very good eyesight, but their vision is very poor at night. They will not see a predator until it is too late. At twilight most turkeys will head for the trees and roost well off the ground, up to 16 meters: it is safer to sleep there in numbers than to risk being victim to predators who hunt by night.   Because wild turkeys don't migrate, in snowier parts of the species's habitat like the Northeast, Rockies,  much of Canada, and the Midwest, it is very important for this bird to learn to select large conifer trees where they can fly onto the branches and shelter from blizzards.
caption: Wild turkey agile in flight
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