by Mike Dye, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources 

History

Wild turkeys are one of Virginia’s most emblematic native species. Although many of us may be most familiar with the Butterball variety, turkeys have five distinct wild subspecies. The eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) is the subspecies native to Virginia. Wild turkeys were common to the earliest inhabitants of the commonwealth, and history and lore surrounding this bird have grown since the settlement of Jamestown. 

Like so many other wildlife species in Virginia, the story of the wild turkey is one of exploitation and recovery. In the early days of European settlement, when wild turkeys were plentiful, they were used as meat and as a source of market income. Settlers initially thought the supply was inexhaustible, but over time the population of wild turkeys became so small that finding one was a rare occurrence. Virginia was not alone in this. Wild turkeys became uncommon throughout the eastern United States. Fortunately, Virginia maintained a few small, isolated gangs of turkeys in the mountains and swamps. These birds would later become the seed for restoring the population. 

Restoration took many years, from 1929 to 1993, with the final stocking of wild turkeys on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. During restoration, wild turkeys were raised on game farms and released to the wild. Over 22,000 farm-raised turkeys were released. However, it wasn’t until the mid-1950s that it was determined that translocating wild birds yielded much a higher success rate. The technique was adopted and wild turkeys were reintroduced to much of the eastern and southwestern reaches of Virginia. From 1955 to 1993, nearly 900 birds were translocated for these restoration efforts. Most of these birds were taken from the Gathright Wildlife Management Area in Bath County.

Over the ensuing decades, wild turkey populations have increased across much of Virginia. The wild turkey has become an iconic bird in Virginia, with many deep-rooted traditions centering around the species. 

While spring wild turkey hunting has increased in popularity over the past number of years, Virginia remains a hotbed for fall hunting, particularly with specifically bred and trained turkey dogs. 

Habitat

Wild turkeys were historically thought to require large patches of forest, with early biologists writing off many areas as too open for them to thrive. It turns out, however, that wild turkeys use a wide variety of habitats and seem to thrive in patchy landscapes that dominate much of Virginia, where they can access both forest and open land in their home range. 

Modern research using Global Positioning System data has started to unlock many secrets of the wild turkey. One of the biggest surprises is the amount of ground they can cover. Wild turkeys often have home ranges that exceed 2,000 acres of good habitat, and ranges may be even larger in areas where food or other resources are limited. 

Nesting 

Each spring hens (females) prospect for available nesting sites. One of the most limiting factors for wild turkeys is proper nesting and brood rearing habitat. Hens may travel up to 12 miles to find the right nesting habitat. This much movement may put hens into dangerous situations and increase the odds of them being killed by predators or vehicles. Landowners can minimize the distance to ideal nesting sites, thus reducing risk to hens, by managing their land for better habitat. 

Wild turkeys will nest in a variety of areas, including forests, fields, and brushy overgrown areas. The area that is most successful for hatching nests, however, is early successional habitat. This is generally an unkempt area with grasses, flowering plants, and a few scattered shrubs. Wild turkeys prefer to nest in these areas because they provide overhead cover that hides them from predators. Overhead cover includes shrubs and overhanging limbs, which also provide shading. In forested landscapes, wild turkeys often prefer to nest against downed trees that provide protection on the back side. Closed canopy forests with little understory vegetation do not provide protection for hens who are unlikely to have a successful nest in such areas.

A red brick lined sidewalk lined with grass. At the end of the sidewalk a large brown bird is walking uphill . Behind the bird is a wooden gate with a wooden orange flower posted in the middle.
A lack of suitable nesting sites may result in hens moving long distances in search of good habitat. This exposes them to dangers such as predators and vehicles. Photo by: Jennifer Gagnon, Virginia Tech.

Brood Cover 

Brood habitat must provide easy access to plentiful insects. Why? Because wild turkey poults (chicks under 5 weeks old) start out eating ants, spiders, and small beetles. As they grow, they move on to eating grasshoppers and crickets. This insect-rich diet provides protein essential to growing feathers and muscle. 

Good brood cover contains a mix of bare ground, flowering plants, and vegetative cover about 10-12 inches tall. Bare ground allows the small poults to move around and catch insects. Vegetative cover provides umbrella cover. Umbrella cover hides poults, while allowing hens to watch for predators. Ideally, this umbrella cover is near shrubby escape cover, allowing hens to signal to the poults to move there if a quick retreat is needed. Once the poults get to be a few weeks old, they start shifting their diet, mimicking the diet of hens. 

Adult Diet

The diet of mature wild turkeys changes with the seasons, depending on what is available on the landscape. Throughout the year, wild turkeys consume insects, most commonly grasshoppers. Wild turkeys also prefer both soft (berries) and hard (nuts) mast. Presence of plant species that produce both types of mast are good predictors of wild turkey survival and reproductive output. Acorns and beech nuts seem to top the list for fall and winter foods. 

Management

So how do you manage your property for wild turkeys? That depends on the current condition of your property and neighboring properties. The first step is to evaluate what you already have. If you have open land, does it provide good brood cover? If it is forestland, does it provide nesting habitat? Can you increase food production by encouraging a mix of hard and soft mast-producing plant species? 

There are a lot of forest management options for turkeys. They benefit in different ways from disturbances that open up a forest canopy, including clearcutting, thinning, shelterwood harvests, and prescribed fire. 

Your job as a landowner is to identify one thing that your property could offer that the neighboring property may not be providing. Just a bit of thought and planning may keep those wild turkeys from wandering so far and keep them on your property throughout the year. 

Learn more from the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resource’s Wild Turkey Management Plan 2025-2034: https://dwr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/media/Virginia-Wild-Turkey-Management-Plan-2025-2034.pdf

Mike Dye is a Forest Game Bird Biologist, mike.dye@dwr.virginia.gov.