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How the Turkey Got Its Name

a case of mistaken identity and imprecise geography
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Wild Turkey
© Guy Schmickle
  • Full Transcript
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BirdNote®

How the Turkey Got Its Name

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote!
[Wild Turkey gobbling]
 Nothing signifies Thanksgiving like a turkey roasting in the oven. The savory aroma wafting through the house. A misty image of Pilgrims dining with Wampanoag (pronounced wom-puh-NO-eg) Indians in 1621. [An exclamation of pleasure, like “aaah”]
 But did you ever wonder how our holiday bird, an oversized cousin of the dainty quail, wound up with its peculiar name? [Wild Turkey gobbling]
 It’s a tale of mistaken identity and imprecise geography.
 Turkeys are native to the New World, including the New England of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving. Turkeys were also domesticated in Mexico, long before Europeans set foot there. After early European explorers colonized Mexico, they took some of the tamed turkeys home with them.
 But when the bird we today call the “turkey” arrived in England in the 1500s, people got them mixed up with another big bird, the guineafowl. [Sound of Helmeted Guineafowl] Since guineafowl were thought to come from Turkey, both it and the New World bird came to bear the name “turkey.” As it turns out, guineafowl are actually from Africa, so neither bird really deserved the name “turkey.”
 If you think you’re confused, consider the poor Pilgrims’ dismay. They arrived in America only to find it populated with large birds from Turkey. [Wild Turkey gobbling]
 For BirdNote, I’m Frank Corrado.
###

Bird audio provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Call of the Wild Turkey recorded by G.F. Budney. Ambient eastern US songbirds recorded by W.L. Hershberger,
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2007 Tune In to Nature.org   Rev. for Nov. 2008

ID# 112207WITU3KPLU

 

Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Frank Corrado
Narrator
Guy Schmickle
Photographer
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Related Resources

Learn more about the Wild Turkey at All About Birds

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Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

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Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

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