Wild Turkey Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: You wouldn't think there would be large numbers of Wild Turkeys in a sparsely forested eastern South Dakota, but they seem to do quite well wherever there's even a little patch of cover, such as a farmstead or shelterbelt. This photo of a group of males showing off was taken near Yankton, South Dakota in February of 2008. The males would strut around, following each other and showing off. In other words...acting like human males. Love this photo where it appears they're all gathering for a little meeting, acting like who is the biggest of the big shots in the room.

Wild Turkey - Meleagris gallopavo


Wild Turkey 1	Wild Turkey 2	Wild Turkey 3	Wild Turkey 4
April 2004	April 2004	April 2004	February 2006
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Big Sioux Recreation Area, South Dakota
Iridescent feathering on tom as it struts through soybean stubble field	Tom turkey displaying in late evening sunlight	Tom turkey showing iridescence and displaying in the sun	Closeup of head and upper body with colorful iridescence

Wild Turkey 5	Wild Turkey 6	Wild Turkey 7	Wild Turkey 8
February 2008	February 2008	February 2008	February 2008
Near Yankton, South Dakota	Near Yankton, South Dakota	Near Yankton, South Dakota	Near Yankton, South Dakota
Group of 5 male turkeys displaying to each other in the snow	Single displaying tom turkey in the snow	Fanned tail on a displaying tom turkey in the winter snow	Group of tom turkeys displaying to each other

Wild Turkey 9	Wild Turkey 10	Wild Turkey 11	Wild Turkey 12
February 2008	February 2008	January 2012	January 2012
Near Yankton, South Dakota	Near Yankton, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Group of turkeys with toms fanning tails and following females	Group of turkeys all gobbling simultaneously, with necks outstretched	Two tom turkeys walking side-by-wide in bright morning sun	Closeup head and shoulders look at Wild Turkey

Wild Turkey 13	Wild Turkey 14	Wild Turkey 15	Wild Turkey 16
January 2012	March 21st, 2019	March 21st, 2019	March 21st, 2019
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Near Corson, South Dakota	Near Corson, South Dakota	Near Corson, South Dakota
Single turkey standing in bright afternoon sun	Colorful tom with iridescence, walking across a soybean field	Colorful tom with iridescence, walking across a soybean field	Brilliantly colored tom turkey with bright iridescent feathering

Wild Turkey 17	Wild Turkey 18	Wild Turkey 19	Wild Turkey 20
July 3rd, 2020	July 3rd, 2020	May 18th, 2020	April 13th, 2019
Clay County, South Dakota	Clay County, South Dakota	Elmwood Park, Sioux Falls, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Wild Turkey strutting at the edge of a forest clearing	Wild Turkey walking in the sun on the edge of the forest	Urban turkey! Wild Turkey in a park in interior Sioux Falls	Tom turkey fanning his tail and displaying on a snowy spring morning

Wild Turkey 21	Wild Turkey 22	Wild Turkey 23	Wild Turkey 24
April 13th, 2019	April 13th, 2019	April 13th, 2019	April 13th, 2019
Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Wild Turkey strutting through the snow and displaying at dawn	Three tom turkeys all simultaneously gobbling in the spring snow	Two turkeys showing off for each other in the snow	Profile of a Wild Turkey strutting through the snow

Wild Turkey 25	Wild Turkey 26
August 29th, 2020	August 29th, 2020
McCook County, South Dakota	McCook County, South Dakota
Group of bird crossing a gravel road	Group of birds entering the grass at the side of a gravel road