The
turkey is a large species of bird in the
genus Meleagris, native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the
wild turkey (
M. gallopavo) of eastern and central North America and the
ocellated turkey (
M. ocellata) of the
Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Males of both turkey species have a distinctive fleshy
wattle, called a snood, that hangs from the top of the beak. They are among the largest birds in their ranges. As with many large ground-feeding birds (members of the order
Galliformes), the male is bigger and much more colorful than the female. This photograph, taken at Deer Island Preserve in
Novato, California, shows a male
Rio Grande wild turkey (
M. g. intermedia) strutting – the courtship display, in which the snood (the erectile, fleshy protuberance on the forehead) engorges with blood, becomes redder and elongates, hanging well below the beak.
Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg