Turkey In The Straw, I mean Dust

[TMcD_in_MI]

Has anyone ever seen a wild turkey take a dust bath? I hadn't until today. There was a mama turkey and four chicks rolling around in my garden and I snapped a couple of pictures. It was pretty comical. In this shot you can see one of the chicks to the left of the feathery dust cloud.

Yes, we could use a little rain.

Tom

 

[JayC]

Whoa. What a coincidence. It's funny you mention that. There was one doing that across the road in the field the other day.

 

[TMcD_in_MI]

You can see the turkeys better in this picture.

Tom

 

[Birdhunter1]

They do that to control parasites and such in their feathers.
I actually learned that from studying quail habitiat, this is from quail unlimited:
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( . Also the bare soil areas are needed by quail for dusting sites so the birds can rid themselves of external parasite )</font>

I am guessing turkeys do this for the same reason. The first time I saw quail doing that I was like HUH? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Then not long after that I came across this page on the quail unlimited website and it expalined it: http://www.qu.org/downloads/quail_in.doc

 

[sassafraspete]

Cool pictures. I had one swoop by me while I was standing in my yard this weekend. 1st thought it was a 747.....it kinda came close to my head. It was on a glide path into a landing into some woods. The neighbor kid just made a pass through their field with a mini bike and jumped it up.

Do they take baths as well? and why would that be...to make more dust stick? My thoughts have turned fowl.

sassafraspete

 

[Jagmandave]

I was driving to work the other morning and there were 3 or 4 hens right by the shoulder of the highway with a male all fluffed up in front of them - had them mesmerized he did! Didn't pay a bit of attention to the traffic whizzing by less than 10 feet away.............