Happy Thanksgiving - SC State game Bird

In a 25-mph sprint, it can outrun a galloping horse. Flights can exceed a mile, reaching 55 mph. Males and a fraction of females boast beards. The head and neck of a male can change color from red or white to blue in seconds based on mood.
"South Carolina is noted as having the purest strain of Eastern wild turkeys in the country," Ruth said. "That's because we had those residual birds on the Francis Marion Forest and other areas from the coastal plain."
The birds are so big, about 4 feet from beak to tail, that whenever taking off from a perch, they cause quite the commotion. Their flapping wings are heard from more than 100 feet away. Hens nest on the ground to raise their poults, but rafters, or flocks, roost in forests at night, as high as 40 feet, Camlin said.
A turkey restoration effort begun in the 1950s for coastal areas and parts of the Piedmont has raised the state population to about 90,000, Ruth said. More than 3,500 birds were released in 204 sites from 1974 to 2004.
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