What do turkeys do during the day

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Severe storms can damage feathers or blow them out of place. Extended feather preening is often necessary. A wet, windblown turkey is at a disadvantage to fly, making it more vulnerable to predators. American ornithologist John James Audubon gave the earliest known description of this peculiar behavior in Consequently, most current research on the behavior is performed in laboratories. More than species of birds worldwide have been observed anting. Most are songbirds. However, ground-dwelling game birds such as turkeys and northern bobwhite quail also engage in anting.

Anting occurs in two ways: active and passive. Blue jays, for example, use ants actively by capturing, crushing and rubbing them on their skin or feathers. Turkeys passively ant. The bird crouches atop an ant mound and might rub its wings and tail on it, allowing the disturbed ants to crawl over its body.

What is the function of anting? Biologists have debated several theories for years. Each is based on the fact that only 24 species of ants are used in anting. All contain high levels of formic acid. Some suggest the anting process distributes formic acid, which is believed to help inhibit parasites such as feather mites and biting lice.

A widely held theory holds that birds use ants to soothe irritated skin. Anting is more common in late summer and early fall, the period of heavy feather molting, when skin is irritated during rapid feather replacement. Birds smear ants on their skin and feathers where new feathers are growing. Formic acid feels hot to the touch and penetrates the skin easily.

Preening is how a bird grooms its feathers to maintain them in optimal condition. Most birds feather preen multiple times daily to remove dirt, dust and parasites and align each feather in the best position relative to adjacent feathers and body shape.

The noontime rule is still in play for gobblers that have lost their flock to nesting activities. Lone gobblers are wandering around, oftentimes tight-lipped, but a well-timed call on your part into a coulee could kick start some mid-afternoon delight.

Your afternoon hunt, like a noontime hunt, should take place near a loafing zone, but as the sun begins sliding westward, start looking for turkey activity near field edges and feeding locales as birds try to fill up before flying to roost.

Lone gobblers come to mid-afternoon calls best, but hens also have a tendency to come to other hens as flocks begin to regroup for roost travel.

Boss hens oftentimes require a cantankerous response. Sunset setups can be successful since turkeys will be on a guaranteed trail to their roosts. The risk is that a screw-up on your behalf could cause birds to abandon a traditional roost and ruin a sunrise setup. For more wild turkey tips and facts to prep for this hunting season, check out Grand View's wild turkey how-to articles and videos here. By Mark Kayser March 10, Categories Wild Turkey.

Tags Wild Turkey Mark Kayser. Sign Me Up! Join other outdoor enthusiasts who already get great content delivered right to their inbox. But we've watched far too many birds stop 50 yards out, explode into strut and wait for the "hen" to walk the rest of the way to them.

Here's a good way to cut down on some of those hang-ups. Stake a fake hen 20 yards past a calling setup. This puts you smack between the decoy and the gobbling turkey you're yelping to. If the bird works in and stops 50 yards from the imposter, great! He's 30 yards or so off the end of your shotgun barrel.

Set the trio on their stakes; they'll spin enticingly in the breeze to catch the eye of a gobbler. Setting a jake or strutting Tom with a hen or two is important, as a mature gobbler will sometimes see him and come in to kick his butt the old guy thinks the jake is courting a hen. Decoys work best in fields, logging roads and other open areas where gobblers can spot them a long way off.

If the turkeys wont come to your calling, try letting the decoys do the talking for you. Just setup two or more decoys in an open area and wait. Turkey Hunting Conditions Back Up. As a rule turkeys gobble best on clear, calm, high-pressure mornings in the spring.

Stand on a ridge or bluff at dawn and you're apt to hear birds gobbling a mile or more away in all directions. Not only can you hear well on a nice day, your calls also ring true and carry far.

Any mouth or friction call works well. Since yelps and cutts carry nicely, you don't have to hammer away on calls. Soft to moderately loud calling is most realistic. In the fall flocks are vocal on calm days. Pause on a hardwood ridge and you might hear birds clucking, yelping and purring to yards away. Listen for birds flying down from a roost, or scratching in the leaves for feed. About the only down side to a calm day is that turkeys might hear you coming and spook, especially when the fallen leaves are dry and deep in October or November.

In this case try to walk along field edges, logging roads and the like. Pause often to call and listen for turkeys calling back or scratching. Windy Days Back Up. Wind is the bane of turkey hunters. For one thing birds don't gobble very much after they're been whipped around in trees all night. Same thing in the fall; birds don't feel like roost clucking or yelping much after windy nights. Even if birds gobble or yelp a few times you probably can't hear those calls because of a stout breeze.

Rainy Days Back Up. Turkey hunting is poor in heavy rain. The birds are neither vocal nor active, so there's really no reason to get out there and get drenched. But say one morning a low front passes through. The sky brightens and the sun pops out after a night of downpours or storms. Hit the woods! In the spring many toms start gobbling for hens. And in the fall flocks begin to move around and feed.

If it's misty, foggy or raining lightly put on a rain jacket and go hunting. Some toms gobble great on gray days. On rainy mornings in the spring turkeys tend to stay in their roost trees longer than normal. I've called to gobblers that didn't fly down until or even a. Same thing in the fall, flocks linger in trees well after first light. Keep this in mind as you walk around and call.

Fields, food plots, power line rights-of-way and similar open areas are great places to check for single turkeys or flocks on rainy days. Many turkeys don't like to hang around in dripping woods, largely because their hearing is impaired. They move out into openings where they can hear better. Also the birds try to avoid water-soaked brush and saplings.