Turkey
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Turkey
Bird
A large bird native to the Americas, famous for the snood that hangs from the top of its beak.
💡 Fun Facts
- Only male turkeys (tom turkeys) can puff out their feathers, strut, and make a "gobble" sound.
- Wild turkeys can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour!
- They have excellent vision and can see in colour.
Name Story
Meleagris gallopavo
means “the guineafowl cock-peacock — a tangle of mix-ups”
What does its name mean?
- Meleagris — the Greek name for the guineafowlGreek; tied to the myth of Meleager, whose grieving sisters were turned into spotted birds
- gallopavo — cock-peacockLatin gallus 'cockerel' + pavo 'peacock'
- turkey — a famous mistake — named after a country it never came fromEnglish
Almost every part of this bird's name is a mix-up! It is an American bird, but Europeans muddled it with the African guineafowl, which reached them through traders from Turkey — so it ended up named after a country it had never even visited.