Can Turkeys fly?
It is surprising to see what you thought was a flightless bird fly right past you; it makes you question many things you thought you knew.
While domestic turkeys do not fly, wild turkeys do. However, by flying, the belief is that they rise as high as birds and fly just as fast. While wild turkeys fly, experts hold that flight is limited to short distances. A turkey can fly approximately 40 to 50 miles per hour, but they stay relatively low to the ground.
When we envision turkeys, the obvious image that crosses our mind is not a turkey amid flight but rather one roaming in the field or within the confines of a home. We envision thanksgiving and a thick juicy marinated turkey ready to be devoured.
The live domesticated turkey may be reared for its ability to provide consumers with white meat, or it may, in some circumstances, be a house pet. Regardless, at no point do we ever consider the possibility of turkeys flying. Why is that? Can turkeys fly?
The truth is, some turkeys do fly, but the flight is often limited to wild turkeys. Wild turkeys cannot only fly, but they can also run at great speeds. Wild turkeys roam the woods seeking food and even avoiding predators.
A flight response among wild turkeys might be prompted by the need to escape danger. For a domesticated turkey, however, this is not applicable because a domesticated turkey becomes too large to fly, which leads most people to believe that turkeys are flightless birds. That is not entirely true.
What sets the wild turkey apart from the domestic turkey?
There is s difference between wild turkeys and domestic turkeys. The wild turkeys, as the word suggests, are turkeys that roam the wild, while domestic turkeys are turkeys found within homes and farms.
To understand the distinction between the turkeys that cannot fly and those that can, aside from their tameness or lack thereof, it is essential to note that wild and domestic turkeys might look the same but are different. The color of the feathers is the easiest way to distinguish between a wild turkey and a tame one.
While white-feathered turkeys are domesticated, their dark-feathered friends are recognized as wild, and as such, the dark-feathered turkeys can fly and not their white-feathered relatives. Wild turkeys have wings that spread out to approximately 4.1 to 4.8 feet. They can only fly for short distances and close to the ground. Unlike other flying birds in high altitudes, the flight capability of a turkey is limited to short distances and attitude.
Why can't domestic turkeys fly?
The reason turkeys reared at homes and on farms cannot fly has more to do with domestication than the bird's capability in flight. Farmers breed turkeys to have a considerable body mass, making them a viable option for consumption. The hypothesis has not been tested for accuracy, but domesticating animals has far-reaching evolutionary consequences.
For instance, Farmers require that the inbred turkeys have large breasts. Thus, they feed the domesticated birds large amounts while confining them, limiting movement and ability to practice and enforce flight activity.
The size of the bird makes them attractive to consumers and, thus, drives more purchases. The problem is, therefore, that the large breasts that become muscular in design may hinder a turkey's ability to fly. The more feed a turkey eats, the larger they grow.
A growing breast informs more strength and power but inhibits the bird's ability to flap its wings swiftly enough to gain flight momentum.
Therefore the underlying reason that underpins the reason why domestic turkeys fly is that they essentially grow too large and heavy to fly.

Can Turkeys fly

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