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© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Bill Chambers

Brush Turkey

Alectura lathami

Physical Characteristics

  • These turkeys are black to brownish-black with red facial skin and yellow necks. The male has a larger yellow collar than the female. The legs are yellow and the beak black.
  • Size of average adult
    • length: 24 inches
    • weight: 4 pounds

Diet

  • Wild: wild fruits, seeds and insects

Behavior

  • Rapid runners, prefer to dash away rather than fly
  • Roost in trees at night
  • Build large (12 feet across, 3 feet high) incubation mounds (nests) of leaf litter and soil
  • Heat to incubate the eggs comes from the decomposing vegetable matter
  • Use tongue as a thermometer to test the temperature of the mounds
  • The male keeps the temperature constant by raking with his powerful feet, covering over cool sections and opening up sections that are too hot, clouds of steam rise as he does his work
  • Reproduction
    • breeding season: August - September
    • clutch size: 18 - 20 whitish eggs
    • incubation: 67 - 85 days
    • eggs laid, broad end up, at the end of tunnels 18 inches to 2 feet deep
    • chicks must dig their way up to the surface of the mound after hatching

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: densely forested areas
  • Distribution: east coast of Australia from the Hunter River north to the Cape of York

 
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