<br> <p style="font-size:11pt">Turkeys are a family of bird in the genus Meleagris, consisted of two species, namely, <a href="/coloring-pages/wild-turkey-walks-in-the-forest" title="Wild Turkey">Wild Turkey</a> and Ocellated Turkey. They are like a chicken but much bigger. Wild turkeys live in forests in North America and Central America. This bird was domesticated in <a href="/coloring-pages/countries-cultures/mexico" target="_blank">Mexico</a> by Mesoamericans and brought to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century. When people from Europe first saw turkeys in the Americas they thought the birds were a type of <a href="/coloring-pages/guinea-fowl-or-hen" target="_blank">Guinea Fowl</a>. This bird had been brought to central Europe from the country of Turkey. The name of that country stuck as the name of the bird. In the <a href="/coloring-pages/countries-cultures/united-states" target="_blank">United States</a>, people traditionally eat turkey on the holiday of <a href="/coloring-pages/holidays/thanksgiving">Thanksgiving</a>. <p style="font-size:11pt"> <br>Some more interesting or fun facts about a turkey bird:<ul style="font-size:11pt"> <li>Turkeys lived almost ten million years ago. <li>The <a href="/coloring-pages/countries-cultures/native-americans" title="Native Americans">Native Americans</a> hunted wild turkey for its sweet and juicy meat as early as 1000 A.D. <li><a href="/coloring-pages/wild-turkey-walks-in-the-forest" title="Wild Turkey">Wild Turkey</a> were almost wiped out in the early 1900's. As a result of numerous reintroduction efforts since 1950s, today there are wild turkeys in every state except of Alaska. <li>Wild turkeys spend the night in trees. They prefer <a href="/coloring-pages/trees/oak" title="Oak">oak trees</a>. <li>Wild turkeys can fly for short distances up to 55 mph. <li>Turkeys can see movement almost 100 yards (91.44 meters) away. <li>In 2022 Turkey officials announced changing the English name of the country to "Türkiye" in order to dissociate it from the bird of the same name. </ul></p> <br> Sources: <br><a href="https://web.extension.illinois.edu/turkey/turkey_facts.cfm" target="_blank">https://web.extension.illinois.edu/turkey/turkey_facts.cfm</a></p> <a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_(bird)" target="_blank">https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_(bird)</a></p>
