Turkey

Turkeys are large, heavyset birds of the order Galliformes in the genus Meleagris, native to the Americas, and rank among the largest birds native to their range and some of the heaviest members of the Galliformes. Two living species exist: the wild turkey, found across southern, central and eastern North America, and the ocellated turkey, found in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, and both male turkeys display a distinctive fleshy growth called a snood hanging from the base of the head. The evolutionary history of turkeys spans more than twenty million years, originating in North America, where they share common ancestry with grouse, pheasants and other fowl; Indigenous peoples domesticated the North American wild turkey about two thousand years ago in Mexico, and the domesticated bird later spread to Eurasia through trade during the Columbian exchange.