Swamp Gobblers

BirdNote^®

Swamp Gobblers

Written by Monica Gokey

[Osceola is pronounced ah-see-OH-luh]

This is BirdNote!

[buggy swamp sounds]

Florida is home to a number of animals found nowhere else on earth… there’s the Florida panther, the Florida black bear, and ... the Florida Turkey, also called the Osceola Turkey, or [short pause] the Swamp Gobbler.

[sound of Osceola Turkey gobbling]

To the untrained eye, the Osceola Turkey looks a lot like its close relative, the Eastern Wild Turkey.

[Eastern Wild Turkey gobble]

But turkey connoisseurs will notice the differences. Size, for one! The Osceola Turkey is smaller, and has longer legs and a characteristic choppy-looking white banding on the tips of some of its wing feathers.

Osceola Turkeys are right at home in Florida’s flatwoods and dense, swampy landscapes. And that preference for swampy habitat may be one of this bird’s biggest advantages.

[fade up swamp sounds]

North American turkey populations were almost completely wiped out by overhunting in the early 1900s, but the Florida Turkey’s impenetrable habitat likely protected it.

If you ever find yourself in the Florida woods, be sure to keep an ear out. If you’re on turkey turf, you’re likely to hear one before you see it.

[more turkey sounds]

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

Today's show brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation.

###
 
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by ML 34601 O Hewitt and ML 23289 A Allen.
BirdNote’s theme composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler; Managing Producer: Jason Saul; Editor: Ashley Ahearn; Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone; Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill.
© 2019 Tune In to Nature.org   March 2019   Narrator: Michael Stein
 
ID# WITU-04-2019-03-05    WITU-04