Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Bush Turkey




Alectura lathami 
 Australian Bush Turkey
One of my gardening friends from up north was complaining about the Bush Turkeys that have invaded her garden and scratched up all her newly planted vegetable seedlings. These communal birds seem to have made themselves right at home in suburban gardens these days and have become quite domesticated. Just a shame they can't be put to good use at making a compost heap as their nest building habits would make them good at this. Their nest, attended by the male bird can be about 4 metres wide and at least 1.5 metres high is made up of all sorts of organic leaf litter and debris. The temperature of the mound, which can contain up to 15 eggs, is kept around the 33C-35C .Once hatched the chicks dig their way to the surface unaided and are independent and free spirited from the word go.


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