Turkeys get a lot of attention in the media this time of year, what with Thanksgiving and all, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily want to see a bunch of gobblers strutting their stuff around your yard. Wild turkeys are not animals you typically think of as likely to turn up in your backyard. Increasingly, though, they do.
Wild turkeys in the yard are not an uncommon site in many urban and suburban areas.
They live in every state except Alaska, and with natural areas increasingly becoming urbanized, residential areas become habitat for wild turkeys and other wildlife. They’re just trying to survive—foraging, looking for mates, roosting—but their proximity to homes can sometimes alarm people who have never encountered a turkey not on their plate. You may find them roosting on your deck, your roof, or the roof of your car. Or, they may forage in your garden or under your bird feeders.
These social birds have a pecking order, so they may get bossy toward people they perceive to be intimidated by them. If you’ve got wild turkeys in your yard, you’ve just found solid advice for effectively dealing with them, so read on.
What to do and how to behave around wild turkeys…
As with any unwelcome wildlife, you want to eliminate or minimize the things that attracted wild turkeys to your yard in the first place. They also need to understand they’re not welcome, so here’s your plan:
- Do not feed them, and—this is important—discourage neighbors from feeding them. This includes unintentional feeding, such as spillage that collects under birdfeeders. If spillage cannot be raked up daily, consider taking bird feeders down until they have moved on.
- Scare turkeys off decks and away from gardens. How far you escalate the scaring will have to do with how hardened they are on the site. Yell at them, push them along with brooms, throw tennis balls at them, squirt them with a hose or water gun, and even chase them with your dog on a leash. Performing a combination of these things will provide the best results.
- Be consistent. You can’t be friendly or indifferent one day, attempt to scare them another day, and assume that they’ll get the message. Nor can some members of the family or some neighbors choose to be friendly or indifferent. If you want your efforts to frighten them off to be effective, everyone needs to be on the same page.
- If male turkeys appear to be fighting with their reflections in mirrors, windows, or shiny car doors, first frighten them off and then cover the shiny surface they saw their reflection in. They think their reflection is a rival male, and may continue to try to make “him” go away unless you eliminate the reason for the confusion.
- If you’re encountering wild turkeys foraging along road edges in your neighborhood, be watchful, and be aware that if one crosses, others are likely to follow.
Upon closer inspection, wild turkeys are quite magnificent looking birds.
Things to aid your efforts…
Your initial responses to wild turkeys in your yard will be essential to getting them to leave. Be bold, firm, and consistent with them. But, it’s good to know about some additional means to support your efforts.
- Motion-activated sprinkler devices, such as Contech’s motion-activated and water-spurting ScareCrow®, can discourage wild turkeys from foraging in your garden.
- Alternatively—or as a supplement to the motion-activated sprinklers—you can protect garden crops with hardware cloth staked fencing.
- Depending on the situation, electronic bird repellers may make your yard seem unsafe to wild turkeys. These devices typically emit hawk calls or distress calls, or some interfere with the turkeys’ communication. All tend to make them nervous, and may play a role in moving them along.
- For roofs or deck rails that attract unwelcome roosting turkeys, products are available through companies like BirdBarrier® that will make the surface inaccessible to them for perching.
- Predator kites are an option for large yards or gardens that need to be protected. Hovering overhead, they make turkeys nervous, much the same way a real predator would, helping to encourage turkeys to seek other digs.
- Placing reflective flash tape on stakes around a garden, on tree limbs, or on deck railings can create a visual disturbance that combined with other efforts above may make turkeys uncomfortable and encourage them to move on.
The combined use of these approaches should yield a positive outcome for you. So, whether it’s the turkey’s month to have their 15 minutes of fame or not, there’s rarely, if ever, a reason to resort to inhumane or lethal measures to get turkeys to leave. In any case, lethal methods are notoriously ineffective, because other turkeys would simply come along to take their place.
The solution to unwanted turkeys in your yard is very much in your control—through eliminating their sense of safety and the tempting foods that make turkeys feel welcome, as well as maintaining a firm and steady response to their attempts to hang around. Soon they’ll leave, and you’ll have accomplished your objective effectively and humanely.
I have been feeding birds for over 15 years. The last couple years wild turkeys have been eating the food. I put out hot pepper sunflower seeds, but don’t know if the turkeys are eating them. Does the seed burn their tongue? If so, I will invest in more of that for the birds.
I’ve watched them eat bird seed and I don’t think it even hits they’re mouths. They just grab and swallow. Almost like they inhale them.
I have no food source in my yard just very large trees where they nest at night and leave an awful mess below.
Have you tried a motion activated sprinkler under the tree or strips of reflective tape hanging from the branches?
Thanks for some very helpful suggestions. I have had a group of 12 turkeys mowing down my garden or getting “stuck” in my dog pen several times a day for most of the summer. They are no longer afraid of my dogs and when I chase them they just seem to go in circles or bash themselves against the fence as opposed to flying or going out the open door. I don’t want to hurt the turkeys, but they are relentless. Maybe I will try the water. I know part of the problem is that my neighbors insist on feeding the turkeys, so now we have not only turkeys, but noisy crows, squirrels, you name it.
The turkeys are in the old oak trees, very tall, and I cannot get the hose to shoot water that high. How do I get rid of them? They are not afraid of people dogs, car panic alarms, and attack. I am at my wits end, they show up all times of day and night. I can’t let my dogs out in my yard.
Just leave them alone; the problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the birds.
We have turkeys destroying our mulch beds and kicking all the mulch onto our grass and driveway area requiring a lot of cleanup. Help please!
My neighbor feeds them and when they’re done, they tear up my yard under the bird feeders and sh– all over. It’s winter in upper Michigan and water is not the answer so I’ve tried firecrackers! That works for a little while but they come right back. I’ve counted 4 flocks adding up to about 40 turkeys per day, over and over throughout the day they hit my yard. I chase them from 8 am to 5 pm every day. I know geese won’t cross yellow and I’m trying that. I tied yellow shopping bags around the arbor and a lawn chair I placed near the area where I feed the birds. Next is a gun and turkey season.
I can tell you from experience that I’ve tried most of your suggestions all last summer and they do not work. In five to fifteen minutes many times they come right back. Sometimes they keep going but come back the next day or two. It just is upsetting that there is no way to stop them. Last year in the spring was the first year I’ve had to put up with them. I’ve seen them several miles from here. It started out in the spring with 14 and by November there were around 25. They have been walking on my house roof early morning, breaking limbs on my shade trees and leaving their droppings. I do not feed them and even took away the big crock of water that we’ve put out for years for the birds and small animals. I’ve lived here for 60 yrs and not been bothered this way. I’m was hoping they wouldn’t be back this year and looked out my kitchen window today and two hens went strolling by and ruined my day.
Have wild turkeys scratching up my front lawn probably to get acorns and making a mess. How can I stop them soo
I have found a 12 gauge shotgun works REAL WELL!
Someone should put hot pepper on your twat! Rotten! You took their land where are they suppose to eat. ignorant people
What do you do when they attack your car and scratch and ding it?