An estimated 46 million turkeys will be cooked and eaten this Thanksgiving. According to the National turkey Federation, 95 percent of Americans eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The vast majority of these turkey dinners will be the domesticated variety, but wild turkeys thrive throughout North America.

Wildlife habitat throughout the United States will improve because of a partnership between the National Wild Turkey Federation and one of the nation's leading vegetation management companies. Trees, Inc., based in Houston, Texas and operating in 23 states, recently became a sponsor of the NWTF's Energy for Wildlife conservation program.

The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is one of two species of turkey, the other being the Ocellated Turkey, found in Central and South America. Adult Wild Turkeys have a small, featherless, reddish head, that can change to blue in minutes; a red throat in males; long reddish-orange to greyish-blue legs; and a dark-brown to black body. The head has fleshy growths called caruncles; in excited turkeys, a fleshy flap on the bill expands, becoming engorged with blood. Males have red wattles on the throat and neck. Each foot has four toes, and males have rear spurs on their lower legs.Turkeys have a long, dark, fan-shaped tail and glossy bronze wings. As with many other species of the Galliformes, turkeys exhibit strong sexual dimorphism. The male is substantially larger than the female, and his feathers have areas of red, purple, green, copper, bronze, and gold iridescence. Female feathers are duller overall, in shades of brown and gray. Parasites can dull coloration of both sexes; in males, coloration may serve as a signal of health. The primary wing feathers have white bars.Turkeys have between 5,000 and 6,000 feathers. Tail feathers have the same length in adults, different lengths in juveniles. Males typically have a "beard" consisting of modified feathers that stick out from the breast. Beards average 9 inches (230 mm) in length. In some populations, 10 to 20 percent of females have a beard, usually shorter and thinner than that of the male. The average weight of the adult male is 8.2 kg (18 lb) and the adult female is 3.2 kg (8 lb). The average length is 1.09 m (3.5 ft) and the average wingspan is 1.44 m (4.8 ft). The record-sized adult male wild turkey, according to the National Wildlife Turkey Federation was 38 lb (17.2 kg).