Wild Turkey

No, not the bourbon.  The animal.

A lovely article about a visitor that came by our house right before Thanksgiving.

According to Dr. Richard Buchholz, a wild turkey expert in the biology department at the University of Mississippi in Oxford:

“She is definitely not a true wild turkey. Wild turkeys have longer, thinner legs, a sleeker body shape, and females in particular have very little head ornamentation,” he said, referring to the small red caruncles on the bird’s neck. He said the bird looks like a bronze breed of domestic turkey because of its coloring and thick, short legs. 

“Since she is flying up on roofs, it is possible for her to also be a game farm turkey or domestic-game farm mix,” Buchholz said. She could have been someone’s pet or a farm bird that somehow escaped. Or she might have been roosting with the wild turkeys sometimes spotted in the Richmond hills.

Sorry I couldn’t get the camera out fast enough, but maybe we will meet again.  Looks like this bird is calling our neighborhood “home.”