Turkeys vs ground nesters

VernAK

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Dec 24, 2012
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Delta Jct, Alaska
I've been told that wild turkeys will destroy nests of other ground nest birds like pheasants and grouse.

Is there any validity to that ?
 
Joined
Mar 1, 2017
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Eagle River, AK
I believe it. Ever see what chickens do mice? Or even chicks that aren’t their own? Birds are predators, turkeys one of the biggest.

I know people in pheasant country that hate turkeys, even blow up roosting trees to kill whole flocks to help out the pheasants
 

realunlucky

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Jan 20, 2013
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Eastern Utah
Bullshit!

Thanks for the link lots of good information. I took just a couple snipits from the article.
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Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 

brockel

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Baker,mt
Wouldn’t surprise me. You ever see what a chicken will eat? It’s a good thing they don’t stand 6’ tall
 

Erict

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near Albany, NY
Another Possibility - here's the main point: "Gary presented an explanation that makes a lot of sense. If a hen grouse successfully hatches her brood, she leads them away from the nest. All that remains is an empty nest with empty egg shells. Birds seek the calcium in egg shells, and will gladly come to the nest to eat these shells—including turkeys. It is possible that these people saw a turkey cleaning up a nest after the hatching is complete, and in fact the birds are safe a good distance away."
 

hobbes

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Another Possibility - here's the main point: "Gary presented an explanation that makes a lot of sense. If a hen grouse successfully hatches her brood, she leads them away from the nest. All that remains is an empty nest with empty egg shells. Birds seek the calcium in egg shells, and will gladly come to the nest to eat these shells—including turkeys. It is possible that these people saw a turkey cleaning up a nest after the hatching is complete, and in fact the birds are safe a good distance away."
I don't believe they've seen them do any such thing. If that was the case, a hen would turn right around and eat the egg shells once her chicks were hatched. I find hatched out nests occasionally and not once has it look like a hen has done anything besides walk away. Any nests that I've found destroyed has clearly been done by 4 legged varmints that have eaten the contents of the eggs. A raven will gladly do it if the eggs are in the open.
 
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