First introduced in 1815 from North America as a gamebird, the wild turkey is an unexpected site along Hawaiʻi’s roadsides. At almost 4 feet long, they’re a hard-to-miss bird, though they can be well camouflaged and still in tall grass when nesting. Like a scrawnier version of the Thanksgiving Day turkey, they have a colorful naked head and neck with dark plumage. In Spring, look for the impressive display as the males fan out their long tail feathers.

The map below shows hotspots along our birding trails where you might see this bird.