Half a century ago, there were no Wild Turkeys in anyone’s backyard in Maine. A combination of deforestation (for agriculture) and unregulated hunting led to the extirpation of Wild Turkeys across much of the Northeast by the late 1800s. The birds you see today are the result of decades of successful reintroduction efforts across the region, which relocated birds from wild populations in New York state to Massachusetts, Vermont, and eventually Maine in the 1970s. Since then, from initial introductions in York County, they have spread across the state, and beyond into New Brunswick. In addition to these reintroductions, the reforested landscape is much more suitable for Wild Turkeys: they need trees to roost in at night, and their most significant foods come from trees, like acorns. This time of year, you can find them pecking apart acorns or plucking caterpillars from under oak trees, sometimes alongside Gray Squirrels or White-tailed Deer; these species all eat acorns and often forage together for safety from predators. This is one of the many reasons to leave the leaves (and the acorns and the caterpillars) where they are this fall!
Backyard Bird of the Month is a feature by Maine Audubon created for the Maine Home Garden News, the newsletter of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard
