Baby Scrub Turkeys – A Face That Not Even a Mum Would Love

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August to December is Scrub Turkey nesting season in Brisbane. Those massive mounds of leaf litter can be home for up to 150 eggs in a nesting season, laid by several female scrub turkeys. Often, these mounds are made from whatever the brush turkeys can lay their claws on; garden mulch, washing from the line and even a Christmas tree! We can place brush turkey traps and humanely remove the brush turkey from your property.

Baby Scrub Turkey
Baby Scrub Turkey

These eggs hatch after approximately 7 weeks incubation in the nest. But the life of a baby scrub turkey is not an easy one; an estimated only 1 in 100 baby scrub turkeys make it to adulthood.

Scrub turkey eggs while in the nest, are prey to burrowing predators such as goannas. If an egg survives until hatching, the baby scrub turkey digs its way out of the nest and fends for itself (there are no mothering instincts with Scrub Turkey mums). It looks a bit like a brown baby chicken. They are quite cute and most people would never guess that they turn into a brush turkey.

Once out of the mound it generally takes a few hours for their wings to dry off and before the baby scrub turkey can fly well enough to escape from predators such as snakes, goannas, hawks and domestic cats. It is even chased away from the nest by the male brush turkey.

Often a group of three or so baby turkeys may group together for safety and bumble their way around gardens in the suburbs. Their only real defense is their dark coloured feathers that enable them to camouflage themselves very well in gardens and leaf litter.

So, if your garden has suddenly sprouted some fuzzy brown scrub turkey babies, be kind and keep your cats and dogs inside or on a leash until the babies are strong enough to move on and protect themselves by flapping up into a tree. Our scrub turkey removal service in Brisbane will allow your household pets to run free without fear of clashing with the natives!

Or if a turkey moves into your yard, begins to make a mound and destroy your garden in the process, call us to remove the brush turkey before the nest is made and eggs are laid, so you don’t have babies hatching in your garden. Our fast, effective brush turkey removal service uses a brush turkey trap to safely relocate your brush turkey to another location.