These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. We hope the information we’ve outlined above has answered all your questions, and don’t forget to check out our other articles for more interesting animal facts! The most popular and correct term to use is a rafter of turkeys, but a gaggle, a flock, or a death row can also be used in place of this word. If you ever see a group of turkeys in the wild or on a farm, you may wonder what the correct term to call them is. Part of their success in the wild is due to their ability to group together and stay together through the use of complex vocal calls. Turkeys are thought to be silly and scatterbrained birds, however, they have proven to be highly intelligent and good at surviving in the wild. ![]() They do this all with just a few different calls to let each other know what’s going on.īeyond gendered groups, turkeys will come together for mating season, usually with another gendered group of the opposite sex.Ī single male can mate with up to 10 hens during mating season, so males will often compete for dominance and mating rights in large groups before they mate. Using a series of complex vocal calls, they can let each other know when danger is near, disperse, and then come back together. Such gendered groups of turkeys may contain anywhere from 15 to 50 birds in them, and they’re never far from another group of turkeys of the opposite sex.īecause there is safety in numbers, turkeys like to stick together in groups for most of their lives. They subsist in gendered groups, with males and females forming their own respective groups made up entirely of one gender of turkey. Turkeys will typically live in groups throughout the entire year. This term is a bit more on the morbid side, but when you think about it, it really makes sense!Īccording to a study done by the University of Illinois, around 46 million turkeys are consumed on Thanksgiving, with 22 million being eaten on Christmas and 19 million for Easter. This may seem like a strange choice, but it actually is rooted in strong reasoning.īecause so many turkeys are killed and consumed each year for big holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, it’s like every living domesticated turkey is on death row and awaiting their death. This flocking behavior has led the word “flock” to be used for most groups of birds, especially when the actual term is not known.Īnd lastly the most interesting term, “ death row,” can also be used to refer to a group of turkeys. The origins of this word came from the fact that groups of birds flock together when they’re in groups, and will often follow each other and exhibit the same flight patterns. This is a word that is generally used to describe groups of most kinds of birds, turkeys included. The term “gaggle” may seem pretty obvious, as turkeys are known to make strange noises that sound a lot like the word “gaggle.” Therefore, it’s natural that this word would come to be used to refer to this ground bird as a group. A couple of these terms are gaggle, flock, and death row. Other Terms to Call a Group of Turkeysĭespite the word “rafter” being used as the most popular term to refer to a group of turkeys, a few other terms have been widely used as well. ![]() The best we can do at this point is to simply guess as to why the word “rafter” was chosen to refer to a group of wild turkeys. The word “rafter” has origins in Medieval English as a word derived from Greek to mean “stitched together.” This term came to be used almost exclusively for wild turkeys somewhere in the Middle Ages, thought to be around the 15 th century.Įven though there seem to be some possible explanations, they are not completely concrete reasons why this term is used. There’s another theory about the origins of the word “rafter” as being used to refer to a group of wild turkeys that stems from medieval English and Greek. This is an interesting behavior, as wild turkeys generally spend most of their time on the ground foraging for food, yet they prefer to sleep somewhere high and off the ground. One possible explanation for this, as we mentioned earlier, is the fact that wild turkeys love to roost in trees, the rafters of buildings like barns and sheds, or other high up places that would normally be difficult to reach. ![]() So why is “rafter” the most popular and most correct term to use when referring to a group of turkeys? The origins of the word are a bit obscure, as it seems no one can place exactly why or how a group of turkeys came to be called a rafter. Why Do Turkeys Come Together in Groups?.
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