Nesting and summer habitats include scattered forest openings, agricultural fields and grazing ranges. The Wild Turkey prefers open mature forested areas. Too few records are available from point counts to indicate any patterns of abundance. The highest Probability of Observation values are in the major valley systems in the south of the Southern Interior and Southern Interior Mountains ecoprovinces. It has likely increased since then, having expanded extensively northwards in the Kootenays, and west to the edge of the south Okanagan Valley. The Wild Turkey population in British Columbia was estimated to be 4,000-5,000 birds in 2004 ( Wahl 2004). An outlying, confirmed breeding observation in the Peace River lowlands is the result of a local introduction initiative by turkey hunting enthusiasts. Whilst atlassers did not report sightings from southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, the continued existence there of remnant populations from past (and possibly recent) introductions was evidenced by observations made by and reported to provincial biologists (M. Chutter pers. Since The Birds of British Columbia was published in 1990, the Wild Turkey has expanded its range and now occurs throughout the valleys of the East and West Kootenay and southeast Okanagan regions. states in the 1960's, the Wild Turkey was largely restricted to the southern Kootenays, with smaller populations in the Okanagan region and on southeastern Vancouver Island ( Campbell et al. 1990).įollowing attempts at introduction to British Columbia in 1910, and expansion into British Columbia from populations introduced to neighbouring U.S. The Wild Turkeys in British Columbia are of the subspecies M. g. merriami ( Campbell et al. The Wild Turkey is native only to southwestern and eastern North America, but has been successfully introduced for hunting to many other parts of the United States and Canada, Europe, and New Zealand ( McRoberts et al.
During the day turkeys spend most of their time on the ground, often in large flocks at night they fly into trees to roost. Its large size, long legs and neck, featherless head, wattle, and beard make it easily distinguishable from other birds in its range. The Wild Turkey is the world's heaviest gallinaceous bird with adult males reaching weights of over 10 kg. Mean abundance by habitat Boreal Altai Fescue Alpine