The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is a highly adaptable, opportunistic omnivore whose survival is tied directly to its ability to exploit a diverse array of available food sources in its environment. This bird is a ground feeder that forages continuously, with a diet that can include hundreds of different items, ranging from plant matter to small animals. The specific composition of the wild turkey’s diet shifts across its home range, meaning what a flock consumes is dictated almost entirely by what its habitat offers at a given time. This flexibility allows the species to thrive across varied landscapes, from deep forests to agricultural fields.
Primary Plant-Based Forage
Plant matter forms the bulk of the adult wild turkey’s diet over the course of a year, providing the necessary carbohydrates and fats for long-term energy. The most significant plant food source is mast, which is categorized as hard mast (nuts) and soft mast (fruits and berries). Hard mast, particularly acorns, hickory nuts, and beechnuts, is important due to its high caloric density. These energy-rich nuts are a primary food source for building fat reserves in autumn and sustaining the birds through the leaner winter months. Turkeys also readily consume seeds and grains, including waste corn, wheat, and oats gleaned from agricultural fields, alongside the seeds of native grasses and forbs. Soft mast, like wild grapes, sumac berries, and fruits from dogwood and wild cherry trees, provides sugars and other nutrients when they ripen in late summer and persist into fall.
Essential Protein Sources
While plant matter provides bulk energy, animal matter serves as a concentrated source of protein and amino acids, which are necessary for growth and reproduction. Invertebrates constitute the majority of this protein intake. Wild turkeys actively scratch through leaf litter to find beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, and snails. These items are consumed year-round by adult birds but become particularly important for breeding hens to support egg production. Protein is most important for newly hatched turkeys, known as poults, who require a high-protein diet for rapid development. Poults experience explosive growth in their first weeks, necessitating a constant influx of protein. During this period, insects can make up 80% or more of a young poult’s diet, with grasshoppers and soft-bodied insects being preferred due to their ease of digestion. Adult turkeys also consume small vertebrates, including lizards, salamanders, and small frogs, supplementing their diet while foraging.
Seasonal Shifts in Feeding Habits
The wild turkey’s omnivorous diet is a direct reflection of seasonal availability, leading to distinct feeding habits throughout the year.
Spring
The shift into spring coincides with “green-up,” where turkeys consume the first tender growth of grasses and forbs. As insect populations emerge, protein intake increases significantly, especially for hens preparing for nesting and egg-laying.
Summer
During the warmer months, the diet is highly diversified, driven by the abundance of insects and the ripening of soft mast. Poults rely almost exclusively on the rich insect life found in open, low-growing vegetation, while adults consume a mix of insects, seeds, and berries.
Autumn
The transition to autumn is marked by heavy consumption of hard mast, such as acorns and hickory nuts, which have dropped to the forest floor. This period of intense foraging allows the birds to accumulate the fat reserves necessary for surviving the colder weather.
Winter
Winter forces turkeys to rely on remaining hard mast and seeds they can scratch up through snow or find in areas with less ground cover. They also feed on buds and persistent plant seeds, often moving to agricultural areas to access waste grain if natural food sources become scarce or inaccessible.
Digestive Requirements
Since wild turkeys lack teeth, they must process their food through a specialized digestive system adapted to handle fibrous plant matter and hard objects. Food is initially stored in the crop before passing into the glandular stomach (proventriculus), where chemical digestion begins. The food then moves to the gizzard, a densely muscular organ that mechanically grinds the contents. To aid this grinding process, turkeys intentionally swallow small stones, pebbles, and coarse sand, collectively called grit or gastroliths. The gizzard uses these ingested stones to crush hard food items, such as acorns and tough seeds. Turkeys must also maintain a constant supply of water, which they obtain from streams, ponds, and even morning dew on vegetation.