Wild turkeys exhibit distinct seasonal movement patterns driven by changes in food availability and reproductive cycles. Understanding where these large birds spend the summer requires recognizing how their needs shift after the spring breeding season. The transition from mating to raising young and dealing with summer heat dictates their choice of habitat and social organization. This adaptability allows them to thrive across diverse landscapes in North America.
Preferred Summer Habitats
Wild turkeys select summer habitats that offer dense cover, reliable water, and open areas. Hens with young poults prioritize areas with early successional vegetation, such as vigorously growing grasses and broad-leaved plants. This environment, often found in fallow fields or forest clearings, provides concealment from predators and an abundance of insect life.
During the hottest parts of the day, turkeys seek shade and cooler temperatures, often concentrating in bottomland hardwoods or areas with a dense canopy. Proximity to a consistent water source is important, though adult turkeys gain adequate moisture from their diet, including dew, succulent plants, and insects. Turkeys also utilize open patches of dirt for dust bathing, a self-maintenance behavior that helps keep their feathers in good condition.
The specific summer habitat always provides the four necessities for survival: food, water, cover, and space. Hens with broods typically use a smaller home range, often between 100 and 250 acres, concentrating activities around rich forage and protective cover. Adult males, or gobblers, also concentrate in cooler, resource-rich areas but may have a larger overall home range than a brood hen.
Social Structure Changes During Summer
The cohesive, large flocks seen during the winter and spring breeding season disperse significantly once the nesting period is over. This results in a profound change in the social structure of wild turkeys during the summer. The primary social unit becomes the brood, consisting of the hen and her newly hatched young, called poults.
Hens that successfully hatched a clutch focus entirely on raising their poults. They often join with other successful hens to form multi-hen-brood flocks in late summer, centered on habitat necessary for the poults’ rapid growth. Hens that did not nest or were unsuccessful may form their own separate flocks, distinct from the brood groups.
Meanwhile, adult males, or gobblers, separate from the females after the mating season, forming small, all-male “bachelor groups.” These groups often consist of adult males and sometimes juvenile males, known as jakes. The males spend the summer recovering from the physical demands of breeding and establishing a new dominance hierarchy.
Summer Foraging and Dietary Needs
The summer diet of wild turkeys is driven by the immediate need for high protein, especially for rapidly growing poults. Newly hatched poults are almost entirely dependent on insects for the first few weeks of life to support their growth and muscle development. This need explains why hens choose to raise their young in areas with abundant invertebrate populations.
Adult turkeys also consume insects during the summer, which provides protein to support the feather replacement process. Wild turkeys are opportunistic omnivores, meaning their diet is highly flexible and dependent on what is currently available. Their summer foraging is less dependent on hard mast, such as acorns, which becomes a staple in the fall and winter.
Instead, the summer diet incorporates significant amounts of soft mast, including various berries and fruits. Soft mast provides moisture that supplements the water obtained from insects and other sources, which is beneficial during hot, dry periods. Turkeys also consume green vegetation and seeds from forbs and grasses found in open habitat areas.