Last week, we got quite a surprise. Bill saw a big bird fly by our window. So big that it stunned us and we had to investigate.

Well, there in our yard were 20 beautiful wild turkeys. The flock consisted of four adult hens and 16 young poults.

What a sight as we sat and watched them fly up into our trees to roost for the night. They have come back every evening, and we are amazed to see these birds at such a close distance.

One of the amazing natural resources of Ohio is the game bird the wild Eastern turkey.

Once inhabited all over Ohio, by 1904 the birds were extirpated due to over hunting. In the 1950s and 1960s, a program was started to repopulate Ohio’s famous game bird. Raised turkeys were let loose, but they did not fare well.

Next conservationists trapped wild turkeys from other states’ large populations, and released these turkeys into Ohio. These were successful, and due to rigid conservation and laws that governed hunting, our wild turkeys have thrived.

The Eastern turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is a beautiful sight, standing 3 to 4 feet tall; gobblers are up to 24 pounds, and are iridescent bronze, blue, red, green and gold. The head is almost naked with warts, but they can change the colors from white, red or blue.

When it is breeding season, males fan out their tails and drag their fanned wings doing a strut to attract females.These hens are smaller, about 12 pounds, and not as colorful, being a drabber gray. The hen lays a nest on the ground in dense areas near open fields. A clutch of eight to 16 eggs (the average is 12) is hatched after 28 days.

The hen rears the young, which hatch ready to graze and forage. They can fly at just two weeks. They stay in large flocks throughout the rest of the year.

In the spring, gobblers separate out to find hens. Young gobblers, called jakes, begin to grow their beards in the front of their breasts. These grow throughout the gobblers’ lives.

These birds are polygamous, mating in early April and hens set eggs in mid to late June. They eat nuts, berries, acorns, forbs, insects, worms and grasses. They can run 13 mph and can fly up to

55 mph. They can live up to 10 years.

Threats to turkeys are coyotes, bobcats, raccoons and great horned owls, as well as egg eaters — snakes, raccoons and opossums.

We hope you experience some joy watching these magnificent birds in your area, near your home or at one of our many parks.

For more photos and information, visit http://go.osu.edu/wildturkey.

Hughes is an Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist and an Ohio State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteer in Mahoning County.