Open Places

By: Rob Keck

Openings and fields are important to wild turkeys. In the summer, the majority of the turkey’s food sources are found in open, sunny places. Newly hatched broods may be seen along the borders of fields and other openings, which provide the poults’ primary meal of insects, as well as a variety of seeds and berries.

Grasses, berries and insects also are the primary foods for adult turkeys during this time of year, with plant material providing more than half of the summer diet for the turkey.

Fields are good places to view the attentive hen teach her brood the ways of the wild turkey. And when the following spring rolls around, they are also good places to set-up and wait for a feeding longbeard when the birds refuse to gobble.

*Content courtesy of The National Wild Turkey Federation.