For our American friends, this week is Thanksgiving, and we all know there is one bird and one bird only associated with Thanksgiving: the Wild Turkey. But we already featured the Turkey about … 170 weeks ago. So, if you want to learn how exactly a North American bird got named after a Middle Eastern country, you can check that out here.
And that’s all good and well, but did you know there is a second species of Turkey that is far more fancy? Well, there is, and it is known as the Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata).
Take a gander at that showstopper, it ain’t no garden variety gobbler. You’ve probably never heard of the Ocellated Turkey, because by comparison they are quite rare, and live only on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and Belize. But what they lack in numbers they make up for in colours. This is a Turkey done up for Milan fashion week. They’ve accessorised every inch of their body, from their blue head, iridescent feathers, spotted tails and yellow face warts.
Oh yeah, they got yellow face warts, or nodules. Both males and females have these fleshy growths, and during the mating season they swell and become even more pronounced, because apparently that’s what the ladies want to see. Their mating displays are quite complex, and much like a Peacock, the males fan out their spotted tails and dance about the females.
Incidentally, that’s where their name comes from: ocellated being a fancy biological term for spotted.
Like many of the fanciest things in this world, these Turkeys have a declining population. They’ve suffered from a combination of deforestation and over hunting in recent years. But being fancy also means people are generally more motivated to do something to protect you. So, there are currently conservation pushes to create nature reserves where our ocellated friends can stay safe. And I think I can speak for everyone when I say that the world needs more wart covered giant chickens.
21/11/2021
Bird of the Week 