Animal Diaries Archive

Lots of turkeys

25 August 2006

Welcome to another week in birds. At the moment if you are visiting the Zoo, you might notice that there are a lot of Brush Turkeys getting around. You will probably find them foraging around, scratching through all of the leaf litter looking for a meal. They love to feed on insects, seeds and fallen fruit. You can find these turkeys anywhere along Australia’s eastern coast and they are not easily confused with any other bird. They have a bare red head and a yellow wattle around the base of their neck which hangs lower in breeding season.

The males are excellent mound builders! You can’t miss these mounds, as they are huge. Most mounds are generally four metres wide and one metre tall, and they use this mound to incubate the female’s eggs. So if you are visiting the Zoo, don’t mind these guys, they will be getting around looking busy, foraging in the gardens and building nests as spring draws near.