Turkey sounds -- translations?

[chickenannie]

I wanted to start a thread that explains what different turkey noises mean!!
The longer I have turkeys, the more distinctive differences I can hear in their sounds... (it's a little frightening actually, that I'm starting to 'read' what they're communicating!). But, for example, sometimes the hens will *trill* softly ... does anyone know what that sound means?

And sometimes, especially at night when he hops up on the roost, the turkey tom will emit a burp or something like a growl from his beak. Just once. It's a weird sound and it took me a while to realize it was coming from him! But now that I've heard it I've noticed he does that on a number of occasions.

They also crack me up -- if I have to pick them up and carry them for any reason (one hand clamped on wings, my other arm around their body), both hens and toms will suddenly sound like they have asthma. I think it must be a stress noise, but suddenly they breathe really loudly as if their nose got stuffed up, and they never breathe that way normally when walking around. I thought maybe I was squeezing them too hard or something, but I've noticed they do it regardless of how I hold them.

Anyone have similar experiences?

 

[Struttn1]

Turkeys are very vocal. Hens yelp, cutt, cackle, purr, cluck, putt. They yelp to communicate with other turkeys. Hen yelps can vary in volume from very soft yelps when she is waking up on the roost to very loud yelps when she is calling to other turkeys or letting the other hens know she is the boss hen. Cutting is is the sound an excited hen makes most often when she is going to the gobbler or approaching other turkeys. The hens often let out a cackling sound when flying off the roost and sometimes when flying up. soft clucks and purrs are usually sounds you hear a contented hen make when she is feeding or foraging around with her poults. An alarmed turkey will putt loudly. Both the hens and gobblers will make this sounds and it is a sound no turkey hunter wants to hear during the hunt as it usually means you have been spotted and the warning is going out to every other turkey within hearing range.

The toms will drum, spit, gobble and putt loudly when alarmed. In the wild toms gobble to call hens to them but it seems to me the domestic turkeys just like to gobble to be gobbling. I have never heard a tame turkey do it but a wild tom will often approach a hunter making a pop sound which I think is a locator call of some sort. I have only heard it when an approaching wild tom has gone silent and is slipping in to where a hunter has been calling from.

I have had a few tame toms hiss at me when I have picked them up and broody hens will hiss when you disturb them on the nest.

 

[Dust Bunny]

THANK YOU for posting this i wana know too!!!!

 

[VerlonCox]

Struttn1.............I have a tom right now that does that popping sound!!! I have always found that odd because none of the others do it and I agree its like he is using it as a locator or something. On a side note, he is a mixed breed (HEAVILY mixed), there may be a little wild turkey in his blood somewhere down the path. Unlike most I prefer mixed breed turkeys.

 

[Struttn1]

I have heard some of the old turkey hunters around here refer to it as a locator putt. When I 1st heard a wild tom make the sound I thought it was an alarm putt but they are not as loud and close together as the alarm putt. I have never heard any of my tame birds do it possibly because they usually are all together.

 

[KOTurkeyRanch]

If its the one where they putt when they are eating and such, its like them courting hens i think

 

[chickenannie]

When one of my hens goes off to lay an egg in her "secret" nest, and then wants to join the others, she'll run around looking for them making 3 or 4 cutt-cutt noises, then will stop and listen and cock her head to hear better. When she's within range (they roam widely on the farm) they'll respond with the same noise, usually back and forth, back and forth until she's standing right in front of them. Pretty cool.

I do like the hen's purring sound... makes me feel like I'm doing something right if the hens are contented.

 

[Dust Bunny]

i heard my hen sing last year, i mean to me it sounded like song, i looked outside wondering who was making that beautiful noise, a new song bird perhaps? just to see turkey laying in my favorite flowers

trilling away, does anybody know why a hen might sing? was she trying to entice a mate? i really would love to know.

 

[chickenannie]

Quote:
I think she's a happy hen, singing about how happy she is!

 

[Dust Bunny]

Quote:
I think she's a happy hen, singing about how happy she is!

i hope so ive got baby turks coming next month

she is so nice i wanted her to have friends