Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Ocel­lated turkeys are en­demic to Mex­ico's Yu­catan Penin­sula, north Guatemala, and north-west and west-cen­tral Be­lize. (Bail­lie and Groom­bridge, 2004)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Ocel­lated turkeys most fre­quently in­habit low­land ever­green and trop­i­cal de­cid­u­ous forests. Clear­ings are uti­lized dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. Birds may also be found in such var­ied habi­tats as marsh­land, sa­van­nah, aban­doned farm­land, and old growth ma­ture rain­for­est. (Ben­stead and Cap­per, 2007; "Species pro­file - Ocel­lated Turkey", 2008; Tay­lor, et al., 2002)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• rainforest

• Wetlands
• marsh

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Ocel­lated turkeys are sim­i­lar in ap­pear­ance to North Amer­i­can wild turkeys (Me­lea­gris gal­lopavo), but are lighter in weight and more bril­liantly col­ored. Males weigh about 4.5 kg and are roughly 0.9 m in length. Fe­males weigh about 2.7 kg.

The body feath­ers of ocel­lated turkeys are an iri­des­cent bronze-green color, with those of the male being brighter than the fe­male. The tail feath­ers are bluish-gray with blue-bronze eye spots on the ends, which give this bird its name, as ocu­lus is Latin for eye. The tail feath­ers also have a bright gold tip.

The skin of the head and neck lacks feath­ers, is bright blue, and is scat­tered with or­ange-red nod­ules or "warts". Around the eye is a bright red ring of skin. Males have a blue fleshy crown on their heads with yel­low-or­ange warts. Dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, the crown en­larges and the eye-ring and warts be­come more vis­i­ble in males. Legs are a dark red color in both sexes, but adult males have spurs mea­sur­ing around 3.8 cm in length. ("Species pro­file - Ocel­lated Turkey", 2008; "Species pro­file - Ocel­lated Turkey", 2008; Tay­lor, et al., 2002)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• male more colorful
• ornamentation

• Average mass

  males 4.5 and females 2.7 kg

  lb

• Average length

  0.9 m

  2.95 ft

Re­pro­duc­tion

Ocel­lated turkeys breed sea­son­ally. Start­ing the first week of Feb­ru­ary, males begin to change in ap­pear­ance, with crowns be­com­ing en­larged and skin warts be­com­ing more pro­nounced and col­or­ful. From Feb­ru­ary through April males gob­ble and strut to at­tract mates. Just be­fore strut­ting, a male wags his tail feath­ers from side to side. Dur­ing the strut he spreads the tail fan, holds his head and neck back over the body, drags both wings on the ground, and vi­brates one wing. He struts and cir­cles a hen until she ei­ther leaves or squats down for cop­u­la­tion. Males may also gob­ble dur­ing a strut.

These breed­ing dis­plays occur in open areas in the early morn­ing be­fore sun­rise. After the sun rises, the birds re­turn to the for­est where the tem­per­a­ture is cooler. Males con­tinue to gob­ble in the for­est, while sit­ting on the ground. (Tay­lor, et al., 2002)

• Mating System
• polygynous

The breed­ing sea­son of ocel­lated turkeys oc­curs once yearly, with most breed­ing oc­cur­ring from late March to mid-April. Hens lay 8 to 16 eggs (av­er­age 12) any time be­tween mid-March and mid-May. Most poults hatch by mid-June, but hatch­ing can range from early May to July. A study in Tikal (1993) showed that each hen pro­duced an av­er­age of six poults. (Gaumer, 1881; Tay­lor, et al., 2002)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Ocellated turkeys breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  Most breeding happens from late March to mid-April.

• Range eggs per season

  8 to 16

The fe­male be­gins her parental in­vest­ment with build­ing a nest in which to lay her eggs. The nest is built within the cover of dense veg­e­ta­tion, to hide it from preda­tors. A small cav­ity is made in the ground and a few sticks and leaves are placed in and around the hole. When the chicks hatch, the hen will boldly fight, even risk­ing her own life, to de­fend the lives of her off­spring. (Gaumer, 1881)

It is not known whether males pro­vide any parental care. Work done in 1979 by Sug­i­hara and He­s­ton sug­gests that ocel­lated turkeys have a sim­i­lar so­cial sys­tem to that of Amer­i­can wild turkeys (Me­lea­gris gal­lopavo), in which males do not gen­er­ally pro­vide parental care. Young turkeys are ca­pa­ble of walk­ing and feed­ing soon after hatch­ing. (Sug­i­hara and He­s­ton, 1981)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence

Lifes­pan/Longevity

There is no avail­able in­for­ma­tion about lifes­pan in ocel­lated turkeys.

Be­hav­ior

Ocel­lated turkeys are di­ur­nal. They feed dur­ing the day and roost in trees at night. They are fast fliers and swift run­ners. Ocel­lated turkeys are so­cial and are some­times seen in large flocks. Gaumer (1881) once counted 62 turkeys roost­ing on three ad­ja­cent trees. Each flock ap­pears to be led by an in­di­vid­ual that is in con­trol of the flock's move­ment. (Gaumer, 1881)

Flock size and com­po­si­tion seem to change with the time of year. Sug­i­hara and He­s­ton (1981) ob­served 3 birds to be the av­er­age flock size in Jan­u­ary, with flocks con­sist­ing ei­ther solely of adult males or of year­ling males and fe­males along with adult fe­males. Leopold (1948) noted that flocks ranged from 3 to 10 birds in No­vem­ber and con­sisted of hens and gob­blers. Stead­man et. al. (1979) ob­served that flocks in Feb­ru­ary through March av­er­aged 11 in­di­vid­u­als and were com­posed of hens and gob­blers. By April, the av­er­age flock size went down to 3 in­di­vid­u­als. This de­crease in flock size was due to males leav­ing the flock to be­come soli­tary and at­tract fe­males, and fe­males leav­ing to start lay­ing eggs. (Sug­i­hara and He­s­ton, 1981)

• Key Behaviors
• cursorial
• terricolous
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• sedentary
• social

Home Range

There is no in­for­ma­tion at this time on av­er­age home range size in ocel­lated turkeys.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Ocel­lated turkeys are not as vocal as North Amer­i­can turkeys, which may be due to the high num­ber of preda­tor species found in the forests of Cen­tral Amer­ica. It may be in their best in­ter­est to be quiet birds that re­main un­de­tected. How­ever, male turkeys do make low fre­quency drum­ming sounds, fol­lowed by a high-pitched gob­bling noise. Gob­bling and strut­ting are used by males in the breed­ing sea­son to at­tract mates. Both males and fe­males make a nasal cluck-putt lo­ca­tion call, which can be made louder to sound alarm. (Tay­lor, et al., 2002)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Ocel­lated turkeys are di­etary gen­er­al­ists. Their om­niv­o­rous diet con­sists of var­i­ous seeds, berries, and leaves, in ad­di­tion to in­sects. They have been ob­served eat­ing grass seed heads of Pas­palum con­ju­ga­tum, as well as the leaves of plants such as Am­brosia ar­timisi­ifo­lia, Vitis spp., Pas­palum spp., and Ze­b­rina spp. In­sects con­sumed in­clude moths, bee­tles, and leaf cut­ter ants (Atta cephalotes). These birds for­age on the ground and tend to re­main in small groups when feed­ing. ("Species pro­file - Ocel­lated Turkey", 2008; Sug­i­hara and He­s­ton, 1981)

• Primary Diet
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• roots and tubers
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

Pre­da­tion

Ocel­lated turkey adults and young are preyed on by gray foxes, mar­gay cats, ocelots, rac­coons, coatis, cougars, jaguarundi, jaguars, snakes, and birds of prey. Hu­mans also hunt adult turkeys for food.

Ocel­lated turkeys run fast and fly well, which help them to es­cape preda­tors. Both male and fe­male adults make a loud cluck-putt alarm call, which warns oth­ers in the flock. Birds roost in trees where they are safe from ground preda­tors. (Gaumer, 1881; Tay­lor, et al., 2002)

• Known Predators

  • gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus)
  • ocelots (Leopardus pardalis)
  • jaguarundis (Puma yagouaroundi)
  • margay cats (Leopardus wiedii)
  • northern raccoons (Procyon lotor)
  • white-nosed coatis (Nasua narica)
  • cougars (Puma concolor)
  • jaguars (Panthera onca)
  • snakes (Serpentes)
  • birds of prey (Falconiformes)
  • humans (Homo sapiens)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Ocel­lated turkeys pro­vide food for preda­tors. Also, the turkeys' con­sump­tion of in­sects may help to con­trol in­sect pop­u­la­tions. (Tay­lor, et al., 2002)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Reg­u­lated sport hunt­ing of ocel­lated turkeys and preser­va­tion of habi­tat can ben­e­fit the econ­omy. Mex­ico has made hunt­ing reg­u­la­tions in order to con­serve this valu­able re­source, while also at­tract­ing hunters to come in from out­side the area to help boost the econ­omy of small vil­lages. These turkeys pro­vide a source of food for local peo­ple. (Tay­lor, et al., 2002)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of ocel­lated turkeys on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Rel­a­tively large pop­u­la­tions of ocel­lated turkeys are found in pro­tected areas of Be­lize, where this species is most com­mon. How­ever, in gen­eral, ocel­lated turkeys are rare and have been elim­i­nated from some areas of Mex­ico, such as north Yu­catan, west Campeche, north­east Chi­a­pas, and east Tabasco. Sur­vival rates for fe­males and poults dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son are a low 60-75% and 15%, re­spec­tively, in Tikal Na­tional Park in Guatemala.

Num­bers are de­creas­ing due to in­tense hunt­ing for food and sport. Also, large-scale clear-cut­ting and slash and burn meth­ods to make way for agri­cul­ture are de­stroy­ing suit­able habi­tat and mak­ing birds eas­ier tar­gets for hunt­ing. (Ben­stead and Cap­per, 2007; "Species pro­file - Ocel­lated Turkey", 2008)

• IUCN Red List

  Near Threatened
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Near Threatened
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix III

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Me­lea­gris ocel­lata is also some­times known as Agri­ocharis ocel­lata. (Ben­stead and Cap­per, 2007)

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Rachel Mc­Falls (au­thor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity, Alec R. Lind­say (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), North­ern Michi­gan Uni­ver­sity.

Ref­er­ences

Rain­for­est Al­liance. 2008. "Species pro­file - Ocel­lated Turkey" (On-line). Rain­for­est Al­liance Learn­ing Site. Ac­cessed April 16, 2008 at http://​www.​rainforest-alliance.​org/​programs/​education/​teachers/​curriculum/​resources/​documents/​ocellatedturkeyprofile_​001.​pdf.

Bail­lie, J., B. Groom­bridge. 2004. "Me­lea­gris ocel­lata" (On-line). The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed April 16, 2008 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​search/​details.​php/​40168/​all.

Ben­stead, P., D. Cap­per. 2007. "Species fact­sheet: Me­lea­gris ocel­lata " (On-line). BirdLife In­ter­na­tional. Ac­cessed April 17, 2008 at http://​www.​birdlife.​org/​datazone/​search/​species_​search.​html?​action=SpcHTMDetails.​asp&​sid=305&​m=0.

Gaumer, G. 1881. Notes on Me­lea­gris ocel­lata, Cu­vier. Trans­ac­tions of the An­nual Meet­ings of the Kansas Acad­emy of Sci­ence, 8: 60-62.

Sug­i­hara, G., K. He­s­ton. 1981. Field Notes on Win­ter Flocks of the Ocel­lated Turkey (Agri­ocharis ocel­lata). The Auk, 98/2: 396-398.

Tay­lor, C., H. Quigley, M. Gon­za­lez. 2002. "Ocel­lated Turkey (Me­lea­gris ocel­lata)" (On-line pdf). Na­tional Wild Turkey Fed­er­a­tion. Ac­cessed April 18, 2008 at http://​www.​nwtf.​org/​conservation/​bulletins/​bulletin_​06.​pdf#​search%3D'ocel­lated%20­turkey'.