The Indiana Department of Natural Resources wants to know if you’ve seen any turkeys recently!
DNR performs turkey brood surveys every year to help monitor wild turkey populations. These surveys help estimate how many young turkeys, or poults, survive the summer and how successful hens are at raising them. Turkey brood reporting season is halfway over, having begun on July 1st and going through August 31st.
Indiana DNR encourages citizens to report sightings of turkey broods or hens without poults, including the number of hens, number of poults (if any), the county, and the date of each sighting. Accurate counts are important, and separate observations—even if on the same day and in the same area—should be reported individually. Duplicate sightings of the same birds in the same month should be avoided.
To help identify turkeys correctly, observers should note that female turkeys are generally smaller, about the size of a Canada Goose, with dull brown coloring and no visible beard. Males are much larger, darker, and often have a shiny, iridescent appearance, usually with a visible beard. By mid to late August, poults can be nearly adult size, making it easy to confuse them with adult hens or juvenile males.
Those wishing to report turkey broods can visit in.gov/dnr and search for Turkey Brood Reporting.
