{"id":63470,"date":"2018-09-15T06:41:28","date_gmt":"2018-09-15T12:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=63470"},"modified":"2018-09-15T07:00:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T13:00:35","slug":"wild-turkeys-feeding-on-mystery-berries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/15\/wild-turkeys-feeding-on-mystery-berries\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Turkeys Feeding On Mystery Berries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>These turkeys\u00a0were using a feeding strategy that was both new to me and highly entertaining.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"63478\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/15\/wild-turkeys-feeding-on-mystery-berries\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"6.3","credit":"Ron Dudley","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1536652334","copyright":"","focal_length":"700","iso":"800","shutter_speed":"0.0005","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"wild turkey 9347b ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-63478 size-full\" title=\"wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Four days ago I encountered a flock of Wild Turkeys in one of the canyons of the Stansbury Mountains. All of them appeared to be hens or young of the year and unlike most turkeys I see they weren’t shy and reclusive as they mostly ignored the presence of my pickup.<\/p>\n<p>I was able to get many photos of them but I chose to post this one for my introductory photo because most of the time they were either in the shade or on the dirt road. I prefer a more natural habitat in my photos and this grassy setting is typical of where I find them. In this case the grass in front of the bird doesn’t bother me and I like the light and the iridescent colors on the turkey.<\/p>\n<p>But my primary motivation for publishing this post has very little to do with quality, appealing turkey photos. Instead I’m more interested in the unusual\u00a0feeding behavior they exhibited and hopefully finding out from my readers what kind of berries or fruit they were feeding on. But sadly the documentary photos I have showing the behavior are of very poor quality for reasons that will soon become obvious\u00a0so prepare yourselves for that.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"63472\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/15\/wild-turkeys-feeding-on-mystery-berries\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1536653189","copyright":"","focal_length":"271","iso":"1600","shutter_speed":"0.002","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"wild turkey 9804 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-63472 size-full\" title=\"wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9804-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/500, f\/5.6, ISO 1600, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 271 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n<p>They were feeding in an extremely dense patch of berries near a creek and beneath a thick canopy of trees so they were in deep, deep\u00a0shade. There was so little light it almost appeared to be night in there and once they were in the patch the vegetation usually covered them so completely I could only see where a bird was when it moved a little. The berries were small and in the shade they appeared to be near-white – hundreds of them can be seen in this photo and the turkey has one of them in its bill.<\/p>\n<p>The problem they had was getting into the patch and at the berries in the first place. The vegetation was so thick that the very large birds couldn’t even come close to walking into it or through it to access the fruit so they employed a unique strategy\u00a0that was effective but also dramatic, loud, amusing\u00a0and seemingly out of control.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"63473\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/15\/wild-turkeys-feeding-on-mystery-berries\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1536653297","copyright":"","focal_length":"117","iso":"1600","shutter_speed":"0.00125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"wild turkey 9822 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-63473 size-full\" title=\"wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9822-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/800, f\/5.6, ISO 1600, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @\u00a0117 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Each bird would take off from just a few feet away from the patch, fly\u00a0above it and then…<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"63474\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/15\/wild-turkeys-feeding-on-mystery-berries\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1536653298","copyright":"","focal_length":"117","iso":"1600","shutter_speed":"0.00125","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"wild turkey 9827 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-63474 size-full\" title=\"wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9827-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/800, f\/5.6, ISO 1600, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @\u00a0117 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n<p>crash-land in the middle of the patch with its wings spread so the branches and leaves would break its fall. Once inside the patch I don’t believe they were usually\u00a0perched on\u00a0branches – instead it appeared to me like they were\u00a0often standing on the ground and\u00a0typically I couldn’t even see where they were because they were so covered in vegetation and the light was so poor.<\/p>\n<p>And damn, did this process ever make a lot of noise! When several birds this large fly and crash-land in vegetation this thick or take off out of it\u00a0the ‘whump, whump,\u00a0whump’\u00a0of their wings against the vegetation\u00a0almost sounds like a herd of elephants crashing through the brush.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"63475\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/15\/wild-turkeys-feeding-on-mystery-berries\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,643\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"RON DUDLEY","camera":"Canon EOS 7D Mark II","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1536653415","copyright":"","focal_length":"135","iso":"2500","shutter_speed":"0.0008","title":"","orientation":"1"}\" data-image-title=\"wild turkey 9856 ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-63475 size-full\" title=\"wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley-150x107.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9856-ron-dudley-400x286.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>1\/1250, f\/5.6, ISO 2500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @\u00a0135 mm, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And when they eventually took off out of the patch the process and the noise were repeated.<\/p>\n<p>This happened again and again with many of the turkeys in the flock. The thought that kept going through my mind was “How do their feathers hold up over time\u00a0with all the abuse they’re\u00a0taking as their tails and wings in particular beat against all those vertical branches”? I would guess these turkeys spend a lot of time preening after a feeding session like this one.<\/p>\n<p>The berries can probably be seen best in photo #2 and this one. I don’t recall seeing this kind of berry before so I’d appreciate an ID if any of my readers know what they are (photos taken at an elevation of 6400′ 4 days ago in Utah’s Stansbury Mountains.)<\/p>\n<p>Ron<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These turkeys were using a feeding strategy that was both new to me and highly entertaining.<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/15\/wild-turkeys-feeding-on-mystery-berries\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[334,392,3664],"tags":[2083,4199,1288,4200,2744,3171,311,2743],"class_list":["post-63470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-wild-turkeys","tag-berries","tag-feeding-strategy","tag-fruit","tag-hens","tag-meleagris-gallopavo","tag-stamsbury-mountains","tag-utah-2","tag-wild-turkey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wild-turkey-9347b-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-gvI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}