How to Attract Wild Turkeys

Wild turkeys can be found from Florida to Maine, and are an interesting and enjoyable bird to watch. Wild turkeys favor climates with less than 60 inches of snow per year and have a range of 1 to 4 square miles. Often they separate themselves into groups of hens, young males and adult males during winter. Wild turkey can fly up to 55 miles per hour with their five foot wings span, run 15 to 18 miles per hour and have amazing hearing and eyesight.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Keep open areas of land between 1/2 acre and ten acres. The openings should be large enough to let in sunlight for undergrowth to occur.
2. Maintain pine stands of about 4 to 8 acres. Wild turkeys like this kind of cover.
3. Work to keep corridors at least 100 feet wide. This can include swamps, creeks beds and low lying hardwood stands.
4. Plant stands of leaf bearing trees that produce nuts, berries or seeds as a food source for wild turkeys.
5. Encourage wild turkeys by planting sources of food. Turkeys like crabapples, beechnuts, acorns and hawthorns in the winter. They also eat insects, seeds and greens. Turkeys also like waste grains from harvested fields of corn, buckwheat and soybeans.
   
   
6. Plant clover for turkeys for spring eating. Hens will lead their young to fields of tender grasses and clover in the spring.
7. Keep a ready supply of water year round for wild turkeys. Hens nest within a quarter of a mile from creeks, streams or ponds.

Tips & Warnings

• By following these suggestions even in suburban areas, don't be surprised if wild turkey sightings begin to occur on a regular basis. Turkeys have been known to settle in residential areas when the habitat conditions are met.