Wild turkey
Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus, 1758
The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is a bird in the family Phasianidae and the order Galliformes, also called the Turkey, American turkey, Domestic Turkey, Great American hen or Great American fowl. It is a medium-sized bird with an adult body mass of 5.791 kg (from 4.3 to 7.4 kg reported) and a wingspan of 1.19 m (from 1.03 to 1.35 m reported).
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Quick facts about the wild turkey
This terrestrial, sedentary omnivore lives in forest, and its main foods are acorn, grain, insect and nut. It lays 11 eggs per clutch, one clutch per year, with an incubation period of 28 days, and the IUCN Red List classes it as Least Concern, not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 4.3 kg – 7.4 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 1.03 m – 1.35 msrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- 12.8 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Omnivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- acorn, grain, insect, nutsrc for Main food
- Habitat
- forestsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 28 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 11src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 9.99 months – 12 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Sedentarysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the wild turkey?
Photos of the wild turkey
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the wild turkey live?
Not recorded
What is the wild turkey?
The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is an upland game bird native to North America, one of two extant species of turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey (M. g. domesticus), which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey (not the related ocellated turkey).
From the Wikipedia article “Wild turkey” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wild_turkey&oldid=1383359386), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the wild turkey sound like?
Is the wild turkey endangered?
The wild turkey is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the wild turkey classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderGalliformes
- familyPhasianidae
- genusMeleagris
- SpeciesMeleagris gallopavo Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms Ardea sellardsi, Meleagris galloparvo
Other names and names in other languages (127)
- American turkeyEnglish
- Domestic TurkeyEnglish
- Great American cockEnglish
- Great American fowlEnglish
- Great American henEnglish
- Thanksgiving dinnerEnglish
- TurkeyEnglish
- Wild TurkeyEnglish
- Wild TurkeyEnglish
- Wild TurkeyEnglish
- FiitoAlabama
- ديك روميArabic
- ديك رومي أمريكيArabic
- ديك رومي بريArabic
- ديك رومى برىEgyptian Arabic
- NicirewAtikamekw
- Adi hind quşuAzerbaijani
- KaudaraBavarian
- Дива пуйкаBulgarian
- Yar-IndezBreton
- IndiotCatalan
- gall dindi comúCatalan
- Gall dindi salvatgeCatalan
- ᎬᎾCherokee
- ᎨᏯᏔᎯ ᎬᎾCherokee
- Ахаль кӑрккаChuvash
- Ma'xėhē'neCheyenne
- krocan divokýCzech
- Zwëczajny gùlôkKashubian
- TwrciWelsh
- Twrci gwylltWelsh
- KalkunDanish
- Vild KalkunDanish
- TruthuhnGerman
- TruthahnGerman
- WildtruthuhnGerman
- Άγρια γαλοπούλαGreek
- sovaĝa meleagroEsperanto
- Ordinara meleagroEsperanto
- BimboSpanish
- Guajolote gallipavoSpanish
- Guajolote norteñoSpanish
- PavoSpanish
- Pavo salvajeSpanish
- metskalkunEstonian
- Indioilar arruntBasque
- بوقلمون وحشیPersian
- kalkkunaFinnish
- VillikalkkunaFinnish
- dindon sauvageFrench
- PuutNorthern Frisian
- Wylde kalkoenWestern Frisian
- TurcaíIrish
- PulaidhScottish Gaelic
- Coileach FrangachScottish Gaelic
- Pavo salvaxeGalician
- Turkee feieManx
- kellagh frangaghManx
- הודן ברHebrew
- תרנגול הודו מצויHebrew
- जंगली टर्कीHindi
- divlji puranCroatian
- vadpulykaHungarian
- Վայրի հնդկահավArmenian
- KalkúniIcelandic
- Villtur kalkúnIcelandic
- TacchinoItalian
- Tacchino comuneItalian
- Tacchino selvaticoItalian
- シチメンチョウJapanese
- 들칠면조Korean
- TurkiCornish
- Кадимки күрпKyrgyz
- laukinis kalakutasLithuanian
- meža tītarsLatvian
- KorukoruMāori
- Дива мисиркаMacedonian
- Зэрлэг цацагт хяруулMongolian
- НемӹццӹвӹWestern Mari
- Ayam belanda liarMalay
- PenwvMuscogee
- VicceNeapolitan
- TązhiiNavajo
- PuterLow German
- KalkoenDutch
- Wilde KalkoenDutch
- VillkalkunNorwegian Nynorsk
- Piòt salvatgeOccitan
- Gichi-bine (Mizise)Ojibwa
- IndykPolish
- indyk (zwyczajny)Polish
- Indyk dzikiPolish
- indyk zwyczajnyPolish
- peru-bravoPortuguese
- PeruPortuguese
- Peru-selvagemPortuguese
- Curcan sălbaticRomanian
- ИндюкRussian
- ИндейкаRussian
- Дикая индейкаRussian
- TacchinuSicilian
- KálkonNorthern Sami
- O’só:önSeneca
- morka diváSlovak
- puranSlovenian
- Divji puranSlovenian
- дивља ћуркаSerbian
- Divlja ćurkaSerbian
- kalkonSwedish
- VildkalkonSwedish
- காட்டு வான்கோழிTamil
- ไก่งวงป่าThai
- Ligaw na paboFilipino
- HindiTurkish
- Vahşi HindiTurkish
- Yabani HindiTurkish
- KalakumaTswana
- індик великийUkrainian
- Yovvoyi kurkaUzbek
- PitoVenetian
- Gà tây hoangVietnamese
- Nahenanwam
- 野生火鸡Wu Chinese
- 火鸡Chinese
- 吐綬雞Chinese
- 火雞Chinese
- 野生火雞Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the wild turkey
Other species in the same genus Meleagris.
Ocellated Turkey
Meleagris ocellata
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
How heavy is a wild turkey?
An adult Wild turkey has a body mass of 5.791 kg, with reported values from 4.3 to 7.4 kg.
What does the wild turkey eat?
The wild turkey is an omnivore whose main foods are acorn, grain, insect and nut.
Is the wild turkey endangered?
No. The wild turkey is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does a wild turkey live?
The wild turkey has a lifespan of 12.75 years, with values up to 13 years reported.
How many eggs does a wild turkey lay?
The wild turkey lays 11 eggs per clutch and has one clutch per year; the eggs incubate for 28 days.
When does a wild turkey reach sexual maturity?
A wild turkey reaches sexual maturity at 334.5 days, with reported values from 304 to 365 days (1 year).
What kind of animal is the wild turkey?
The wild turkey is a bird of the order Galliformes and the family Phasianidae, living in forest habitat.
Who named the wild turkey?
The wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, was named by Linnaeus, 1758.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/wild-turkey
“Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/wild-turkey.
@misc{wild_turkey_2026,
title = {Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/wild-turkey},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}