Why Are Urban Turkeys Thriving?

Wild turkeys are causing a stir in cities across the United States. Whether strutting down sidewalks, stopping traffic or foraging in yards, these once-elusive birds are no longer just creatures of the countryside. Now, they’re making themselves at home in urban environments, turning neighborhoods, parks and golf courses into their new stomping grounds.

Yet, while urban wild turkeys are thriving, their rural counterparts face mounting challenges. Nationwide, rural turkey populations have declined by about 15 percent, with even steeper drops in some regions—and not because they’re moving to cities for a cushier life. This contrast between urban success and rural struggle raises questions about how to best conserve turkeys—and how urban populations might help their rural kin.

Wild turkeys moving into cities is a relatively new phenomenon. Over the past few decades, these large birds have found their way into urban areas like New York City; Madison, Wisconsin; Boston and Berkeley, California. Turkeys are remarkably adaptable, says Sunny Corrao, a wildlife biologist and public engagement coordinator with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, who notes that turkeys have now been sighted in all five boroughs there. “A lot of New Yorkers don’t give them enough credit for figuring out how to survive in the city,” she says.

The key to their success? Cities provide a surprising range of perks—plentiful food, prime roosting and foraging spots, and safety from predators. Turkeys are omnivores and have a broad diet, says Corrao. City parks and other urban green spaces offer ideal foraging grounds for them with an abundance of lush grass, insects and acorns—all nutrient-rich fare that fuels their growing numbers.

Beyond food, cities also create edge habitats where forests meet open spaces that provide turkeys with both tree cover for roosting and spread-out areas for foraging, explains David Drake, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Urban areas are rich in these patchworked habitats, and by settling into them, wild turkeys have challenged the old assumption that they require vast, uninterrupted tracts of land to thrive, says Drake. “That was the way turkey management was taught to me,” he says, “but now we’re teaching our students that turkeys are pretty resilient, they’re pretty adaptive.”

Cities are also relatively safe places for turkeys to live. Human hunters are one of the largest predators for wild turkeys in rural areas, explains Mark Hatfield, national director of science and planning at the National Wild Turkey Federation. In cities, hunting is typically restricted or banned, giving turkeys a reprieve from that pressure. Further, while rural turkeys contend with predators like coyotes and bobcats, their city cousins rarely have to worry about these threats. “We don’t have a lot of those predators in urban areas,” says Drake, “and if we do, there’s so many other things for predators to eat.”

One example of how comfortable turkeys have become in cities unfolded this past spring in Manhattan. “There was a female turkey that just randomly showed up on Madison Avenue in Midtown in Manhattan,” recalls Corrao. She became known as “Astoria” by her fans, and birdwatchers flocked to see her as she took up residence in Park Avenue’s large trees and hung out above the entrance to Saks Fifth Avenue, a luxury department store. However, after around a week, she relocated to the quieter Roosevelt Island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. “They are very capable flyers,” Corrao says. “If they don’t like a spot, they’ll fly somewhere else.”

Yet, as wild turkeys settle into urban spaces, they can sometimes cause conflicts. They block traffic, raid gardens, poop everywhere, scratch cars and even chase children, mail carriers and police—reminding their human neighbors that these bold birds are still very much wild animals, not oversized, feathered pets.

Regardless, the relatively easy life of urban wild turkeys contrasts starkly with the struggles faced by many rural populations today. Once abundant, wild turkeys throughout the United States are now in decline—a reversal of trends from just a few decades ago. According to Hatfield, wild turkey numbers skyrocketed from 1.3 million to 7 million between the 1970s and early 2000s, thanks to intensive management efforts that relocated turkeys from areas with healthy populations to regions where they had disappeared. However, more recently, populations have declined to around six million birds. While turkey populations are still doing well overall, Hatfield stresses, troubling trends have emerged of populations becoming increasingly unstable across the country, with notable declines in the Southeast and Great Plains.

The reasons behind these declines and instability are complex and not fully understood. One major factor, however, appears to be a steep drop in young turkey, or poult, survival. In the past, hens would typically raise three or four poults to adulthood, says Hatfield. But now that number has dropped to just one and a half to two and a half per hen. The decline in poult survival has caused wild turkey populations to fluctuate widely from year to year, resulting in population instability, says Hatfield.

Hatfield attributes poor poult survival to changing weather patterns and declining forest health. Cooler, wetter springs are challenging for poults, which are highly susceptible to hypothermia, while damp conditions also make hens easier prey by intensifying their scent. At the same time, forests are increasingly fragmented, less actively managed, and under siege from invasive pests like the emerald ash borer and diseases like sudden oak death. “If the health of your forests goes down, the health of your turkey population will go down,” says Hatfield.

Wild turkey populations in Kansas have been particularly affected, with populations declining by nearly 60 percent since 2008. Researchers in the state have received around $2 million in funding to investigate the cause of these declines. Led by David Haukos, a wildlife biologist at Kansas State University, the two-year study broadly focuses on understanding wild turkey survival, reproduction and habitat use in the state. “It’s been 25 years since a major research project has been done in Kansas on turkeys, and the landscapes have changed dramatically, as well as the overall environmental conditions,” says Haukos.

The Kansas research is part of a larger, nationwide effort to address declining turkey populations. State agencies and universities across the country are investing more in research than ever before to understand the complexities of the turkey declines, notes Hatfield. The findings from these studies will guide state management strategies and support broader conservation efforts in the coming years. However, in the meantime, several states have canceled or shortened wild turkey hunting seasons, reduced bag limits and introduced new permit restrictions to help declining populations.

But could the unexpected success of urban wild turkeys also provide insights to help rural populations recover? Surprisingly, urban turkeys are already playing a role in conservation efforts. In Texas, agencies have begun relocating turkeys from cities in states like Rhode Island and Maine to East Texas, where rural populations have sharply declined. According to Hatfield, these relocations have been remarkably successful with low mortality rates, allowing urban birds to give struggling rural populations a much-needed boost while also easing some of the conflicts these birds can cause in cities.

Beyond these relocations, urban turkeys highlight the species’ remarkable adaptability—a trait that could help rural populations navigate novel challenges. By nesting in city parks and foraging along greenways, urban turkeys demonstrate the flexibility needed to thrive in new, diverse environments. Their success offers valuable insights into how rural turkeys might respond to issues like climate change and altered habitats.

Equally significant, urban turkeys are also sparking a connection to nature among city dwellers. And, according to Hatfield, the urban birds could spur broader support for turkey conservation efforts across the country as people learn how these wild birds found their way into cities and flourished. “We want people to understand how they got there,” he says, “why they’re there, and then why they’re thriving.”

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