turkeys!

Turkeys can drown if they look up when it is raining.

 

Turkeys heads change colors when they become excited.

 

Turkeys can see movement almost a hundred yards away.

 

Gobbling turkeys can be heard a mile away on a quiet day.

 

Turkeys don't really have ears like ours, but they have very good hearing.

 

Turkeys have heart attacks. The United States Air Force was doing test runs and breaking the sound barrier. Nearby turkeys dropped dead from heart attacks.

 

Wild turkeys spend the night in trees. They especially like oak trees.  

 

In England, 200 years ago, turkeys were walked to market in herds. They wore booties to protect their feet.

 

Turkeys have a long, red, fleshy area called a snood that grows from the forehead over the bill.

 

Thomas Jefferson thought the concept of Thanksgiving was "the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard."

 

Contrary to popular belief, Native Americans did not eat cranberries. They did, however, find them extremely useful for dying fabric and decorating pottery.

 

The first meal eaten on the moon by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was roasted turkey and all the trimmings.

 

Columbus thought that the land he discovered was connected to India, where peacocks are found in considerable number. And he believed turkeys were a type of peacock (they're actually a type of pheasant). So he named them tuka, which is "peacock" in the Tamil language of India.

 

In the last twenty years, Americans' love of turkey has soared, with per capita consumption up from 8.3 pounds in 1975 to 18.5 pounds in 1995.

 

Ben Franklin, in a letter to his daughter, proposed the turkey as the official United States  bird.

 

The heaviest turkey ever raised was 86 pounds, about the size of a large dog.

 

Wild turkeyscan fly for short distances up to 55 miles per hour.

 

Tom turkeys have beards. This is black, hairlike feathers on their breast. Hens sometimes have beards, too.