Sightings of this once disappeared bird have increased in Saint-Lazare
over the past few years. Distinguishing this bird is actually a simple
task since nothing else really looks like it, well, nothing but maybe
farm-raised turkeys!
Their bluish-purple heads are featherless and hard to miss. Their bodies
are covered with bronze-green feathers and their legs are purplish-pink.
If you’ve ever seen a turkey, you can certainly identify a wild turkey.
In Saint-Lazare they are often spotted in Chaline Valley, on chemin
Saint-Louis, on rue du Huard and even in the parking lot of the Octo
garage on route de la Cité-des-Jeunes! The sightings are logical as the
birds prefer a mix of habitats such as open meadows and woodlands and
most of our agricultural fields are in this area.
They have a highly varied diet consisting of nuts, insects, spiders,
slugs, berries, clover as well as acorns and can travel over 3
kilometres per hour to feed. Their home range can cover 400 to 2000
acres. Many citizens have seen them happily pecking in their back yard.
And, they will likely continue to see them through the winter as the
birds do not hibernate nor do they fly south.
The fact that we are seeing them in our area is a good sign. The birds
actually disappeared from the Canadian landscape at the turn of the 20th
century due to hunting pressures. Efforts to reintroduce the bird have
been undertaken in Canada as well as in the north-eastern United-States.
The birds we are seeing in Saint-Lazare are most likely a result of the
American efforts.
