Meleagris gallopavo
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
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).
The wild turkey was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Meleagris gallopavo. The type locality is Mexico. The genus name Meleagris is from Ancient Greek μελεαγρις/meleagris meaning "guineafowl". The specific epithet gallopavo is a late Medieval Latin word for a wild turkey: it combines Latin gallus meaning "fowl" and pavo meaning "peacock". The word was used in 1555 by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his Historiae animalium.
Six subspecies are recognised: An adult male (tom or gobbler) normally weighs from 5 to 11 kg (11 to 24 lb) and measures 100–125 cm (39–49 in) in length. The adult female (hen) is typically much smaller at 2.5–5.4 kg (5.5–11.9 lb) and is 76 to 95 cm (30 to 37 in) long. Per two... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 10 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Wild Turkey sighting in Badlands National Park on a given day, based on 113 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 45th most-seen of the 120 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Wild Turkey in Badlands National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July and October–March, the lowest months. Those are among Badlands National Park's wettest months, with about 70 mm of rain a month against 15 mm in January.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Wild Turkey sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 22
Of the 22 parks where we can rate Wild Turkey sightings, Badlands National Park ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in Point Pelee National Park (Canada, about 60%), Zion National Park (United States, about 40%) and Great Smoky Mountains National Park (United States, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Wild Turkey is recorded against all the birds logged in Badlands National Park (113 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
