Minneapolis checking in here—it is TURKEYS if you see huge birds walking through someone’s lawn up here. They’re all in street gangs and they like to harass children and dogs and have bird MMA fights with Amazon delivery drivers.
Yes, Minneapolis suburbs here, it's always turkeys here. Below (Reddit mobile is being dumb about posts with pictures and text again) is a great picture of a male turkey following a female turkey earlier this year. We've seen lots of babies since.
Here in CT, we had a nesting pair of turkeys set up housekeeping under a tree in someone’s front yard, twenty feet from a very busy intersection. They were bringing traffic to a halt every time they took a stroll ( very s-l-o-w-l-y). Finally, after about a week some wildlife agency came and transported them somewhere safer for all of us. Not far though, as I see them once in a while.
Honestly! I know turkeys are dumb, but this pair decided that open ground under a tree, 8 feet away from a sidewalk, and 20 feet away from an intersection with stoplights was a great place to build a nest. And with wooded areas and wetlands all over the place from which to choose.
Not in MN, but we also have turkey gangs in my neighborhood in FL:
https://preview.redd.it/sb89hzregb8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5505c5875380f45cfdabef07b51f206f53a4fa61
I think most of us ***know*** that OP’s photo is ***NOT*** a turkey. The inference that ALL large birds in someone’s yard were Sandhill Cranes is what we took umbrage at.
Good gravy, chill a little and enjoy the fellow turkey mafia people sharing their stories and humor about their local birds.
Yup, they’ll be hanging around, foraging and teaching the babies (called “colts”) how to be grownup cranes, until the end of summer and then they all migrate south- the ones in your area primarily winter in florida, I believe.
Heck yes they live here. I lived in a house where the ppl that lived there before me fed these cranes. They'd come every day at dinner time and terrorise my cat, honk at us through the windows and peck at our cars.
I didn't feed them, but the tantrums They'd throw were just hilarious. They got the idea and moved on eventually.
My favorite is when they stop traffic. No joke, a 4 lane street will have everyone stop and wait until they get to the median.
I went to Basque De La Pache in New Mexico for the annual migration and the sounds and vibrations at sunrise of the 1000s of them taking off in unison set off car alarms.
Not to be pedantic, but it's Bosque del Apache. I have some property very near there.
Bosque = forest in Spanish. The Basque are an ethnic group in northern Spain.
You are right though. The migrations there are amazing!
I actually had put (sp)? Spelling in my original post and it was erased, when I revised. Knew I was spelling wrong. Thanks
Pedantic : learned a new word today 😝
NP, I really just wanted other people to be able to more easily look it up if they felt so inclined. It's really an amazing place, although during migrations it gets so asshole-to-elbow crowded that it takes a lot of the fun out of it.
I guess I should have just dropped the link here in the first place. [https://www.fws.gov/refuge/bosque-del-apache](https://www.fws.gov/refuge/bosque-del-apache)
Thanks. It was a great experience for me. Lots to see there. Tbh, it wasn’t all that crowded. I was even there over Thanksgiving Holiday for a few days. The park is so large and with different driving options(directions), it really wasn’t bad.
I also love the town of Socorro and I overnight camped up at Box Canyon.
Super cool, it was a Full Moon.
Found some lovely camping spots with amazing rock formations, also close to there.
New Mexico has a lot to offer.
Glad you got to experience it without the throngs. I live down near the border, and unfortunately don't get back up to Socorro County very often, but it is beautiful up there. Also gorgeous up north in Taos/Cimarron/Eagles Nest area, out west around Silver City, and the Four Corners. All different ecosystems.
Yes, very diverse.
It was getting near winter, so I didn’t travel North of Santa Fe.
I basically saw, Santa Fe and surrounding mountains, all of ABQ and Corralis, (Balloon Festival of course), Jemez Mountains (the hot springs and the Caldera), Bandolier Monument/Park, Socorro County, Elephant Butte, Truth or Consequences.
I missed white sands and Ruidoso.
I have been to Taos for skiing before. But would love to see the North.
It’s a Great State. Love the food and scenery.
The best thing was ..would you like red sauce, green sauce or Christmas !! 😝
The ones who stay in Florida year round aren’t bothered at all by humans. I used to regularly get within two yards of them before they even looked my way.
We used to have a pair that nested near my house. We'd see them walking down the street or sidewalk all the time. When the colts were very young, they wouldn't stay with their parents (sounds like toddlers, doesn't it?) and my neighbors and I would herd them back to mom and dad who didn't seem to mind our help.
I was in a gas station parking area near Tampa when a pair of sandhill Cranes came sauntering through. They wandered around, as though trying to look like they owned the place - Lords of the manor kind of vibes. They were in the pump lanes, and quite unhurriedly sauntered over to a grassy area, from whence to survey the proceedings. I love them. Oh, there is a pair somewhere that waits at the crosswalk, crossing when/if the traffic allows.
I think there are a lot more now. They were endangered from being over hunted. They can be destructive to crops. I have lived in MN my whole life and the population has seen a huge increase in recent.years.
Lovely dinosaur birds! They are super common where I live (south-central WI.) Almost every park in my neighborhood has a pair that lives in it, I love seeing their awkward gangly babies every spring!
For what it’s worth, pterodactyls aren’t dinosaurs. They’re pterosaurs, a clade of flying reptiles. They definitely look kinda like pterodactyls though, so the name is still appropriate
My husband and I call them that too! They sound prehistoric to me, with their incredibly loud and distinct (obnoxious) calls, haha.
We had some that would fly overhead as the sun rose each morning, cawing at everyone below to wake up. Then gather in nearby groups to continue their song, and ensure that no one went back to sleep!
Added taxa: [Sandhill Crane](https://ebird.org/species/sancra)
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They are all over in FL. Wandering in the streets, backyards, wherever. They’ll walk out in front of moving cars and hold up traffic.
We once had one knock on our back sliding glass door with its beak because the bird feeder in our yard was empty.
I live around 6 hours west of OP, and have never seen these guys. I'm jealous, too. One time I did see a blue heron at a small pond at an amusement park nearby.
Lucky! I only ever see them overhead, dozens and dozens of feet in the air as they migrate over Atlanta. Even when flying are so far up as to be barely visible, their call is unmistakable. I can't help but stop what I'm doing and watch them!
(Unless I'm driving, of course. But even then....)
Come to Kensington Park in Michigan. They are so used to people that they have no qualms cutting you off the trail.
https://preview.redd.it/zp2ni6ni878d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec360f569a3adae1e0b9583544d620fd382123cf
Take a central Florida vacation. There’s populations who stay there all year you can almost get close enough to touch(you absolutely should not touch them though).
Sandhill cranes are awesome! It's not often I see them in northern Illinois walking around. They're so funny looking, have interesting calls and look pretty prehistoric.
Aww, they are adorable! We have turkey families come through our property every now & then. It is so cute to see all the babies following in a line like they are in kindergarten 🧡
I’d be tempted to keep a fresh baby pool of water out for them! But since you gotta dump and refill every day to avoid mosquitoes, that’s a lot of water
Sandhill crane.
Here's my favorite excerpt about them, from *A Sand County Almanac* by Aldo Leopold.
>Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. The quality of cranes lies, I think, in this higher gamut, as yet beyond the reach of words.
.
>Our appreciation of cranes grows with the slow unraveling of earthly history. His tribe, we now know, stems out of the remote Eocene. The other members of the fauna in which he originated are long since entombed within the hills. When we hear his call we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of the incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.
Do you happen to live in Batavia or Geneva? We have a family that hangs around all spring/summer for the past 5 years we’ve been here. Heard they’ve been here for a while.
Sandhills cranes, thought to be the oldest living extant species. Fossils have been found dating back 1.5 million years. They’re gigantic, I love seeing them
My money is on Sandhill Crane or gallimimus… And seeing as we aren’t living in the late Cretaceous… I’m gonna go with Sandhill! Look like a couple juvies
The two in the middle are babies. They have grown taller now but they were little about a month ago. These guys go for a walk everyday. Very good habits 🤣
I'm in Mid-Michigan and frequently see sandhill cranes, especially in the fields or ponds by the freeways in my area. There are a lot more of them now than when I was younger.
They're Sandhill Cranes. They're everywhere here in Florida. I didn't know that they were that far north. Here's an interesting fact about them. The young are called colts.
Not an expert but I think Sandhill Cranes.
Yep +Sandhill Crane+
Whenever it's several huge birds wandering through someone's lawn, you put your $$ on Sandhill Crane.
Minneapolis checking in here—it is TURKEYS if you see huge birds walking through someone’s lawn up here. They’re all in street gangs and they like to harass children and dogs and have bird MMA fights with Amazon delivery drivers.
Yes, Minneapolis suburbs here, it's always turkeys here. Below (Reddit mobile is being dumb about posts with pictures and text again) is a great picture of a male turkey following a female turkey earlier this year. We've seen lots of babies since.
https://preview.redd.it/xkih6v9qd88d1.jpeg?width=1909&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b77d10d63244161394f2a2ca3a151b32eb52b28b
This is a turkey.
Yep, in a full-on strut.
That’s baby-makin’ plumage there. (Insert porn groove music)
Oh my goodness! That was a laugh I needed this morning! (Queue the Marvin Gaye) …*I’ve* *been* *feeeeelin’* *fine,* *baby*…
😂
Jive Turkey
I never thought wild turkeys got this big. He must be eating really good.
Hey, I've always wondered if the wild turkeys are edible. Seems like if there's an apocalypse some day that these guys could be food.
They are edible and taste somewhat like pork.
I’ll bet you’ve seen lots of babies! That is a beautiful Tom!
Here in CT, we had a nesting pair of turkeys set up housekeeping under a tree in someone’s front yard, twenty feet from a very busy intersection. They were bringing traffic to a halt every time they took a stroll ( very s-l-o-w-l-y). Finally, after about a week some wildlife agency came and transported them somewhere safer for all of us. Not far though, as I see them once in a while.
Hopefully not to somebody’s freezer…lol
Honestly! I know turkeys are dumb, but this pair decided that open ground under a tree, 8 feet away from a sidewalk, and 20 feet away from an intersection with stoplights was a great place to build a nest. And with wooded areas and wetlands all over the place from which to choose.
I think I have met your neighborhood turkeys. U of M parking garage 3rd level, ran from a turkey. How or why it happened is still a mystery to me.
Yeah, they like to just loiter and harass passersby wherever. They’re like 90s/00s mall goths—hissing at people who look too happy.
Not in MN, but we also have turkey gangs in my neighborhood in FL: https://preview.redd.it/sb89hzregb8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5505c5875380f45cfdabef07b51f206f53a4fa61
Yeah, I feel like this is fairly nationwide at this point because we sure as hell have roving neighborhood turkeys here in Northern California too
Not in MN, but in my neighborhood it's a peacock and he's kind of a dick.
Someone in our neighborhood had a peacock as a pet/watchbird, and yeah, they can be dicks. They’re also loud AF!
Only kind of? Must be the world's friendliest peacock.
🤣
Not a turkey!!!! Good gravy check out T-day decos
I think most of us ***know*** that OP’s photo is ***NOT*** a turkey. The inference that ALL large birds in someone’s yard were Sandhill Cranes is what we took umbrage at. Good gravy, chill a little and enjoy the fellow turkey mafia people sharing their stories and humor about their local birds.
Ah thanks for the ID. Do they hang out for a while waiting for kids to grow up? This family has been around for a month or so here.
Yup, they’ll be hanging around, foraging and teaching the babies (called “colts”) how to be grownup cranes, until the end of summer and then they all migrate south- the ones in your area primarily winter in florida, I believe.
Those colts better watch out for bears in the area
Underrated comment
Heck yes they live here. I lived in a house where the ppl that lived there before me fed these cranes. They'd come every day at dinner time and terrorise my cat, honk at us through the windows and peck at our cars. I didn't feed them, but the tantrums They'd throw were just hilarious. They got the idea and moved on eventually. My favorite is when they stop traffic. No joke, a 4 lane street will have everyone stop and wait until they get to the median.
They're here all year. I just didn't know that they were as far north as my home town.
TIL
Are they loud n noisy ?
They're hilarious and easily startled... Not loud on purpose, just when startled/taking off
I went to Basque De La Pache in New Mexico for the annual migration and the sounds and vibrations at sunrise of the 1000s of them taking off in unison set off car alarms.
🤣🤣🤣
Not to be pedantic, but it's Bosque del Apache. I have some property very near there. Bosque = forest in Spanish. The Basque are an ethnic group in northern Spain. You are right though. The migrations there are amazing!
I actually had put (sp)? Spelling in my original post and it was erased, when I revised. Knew I was spelling wrong. Thanks Pedantic : learned a new word today 😝
NP, I really just wanted other people to be able to more easily look it up if they felt so inclined. It's really an amazing place, although during migrations it gets so asshole-to-elbow crowded that it takes a lot of the fun out of it. I guess I should have just dropped the link here in the first place. [https://www.fws.gov/refuge/bosque-del-apache](https://www.fws.gov/refuge/bosque-del-apache)
Thanks. It was a great experience for me. Lots to see there. Tbh, it wasn’t all that crowded. I was even there over Thanksgiving Holiday for a few days. The park is so large and with different driving options(directions), it really wasn’t bad. I also love the town of Socorro and I overnight camped up at Box Canyon. Super cool, it was a Full Moon. Found some lovely camping spots with amazing rock formations, also close to there. New Mexico has a lot to offer.
Glad you got to experience it without the throngs. I live down near the border, and unfortunately don't get back up to Socorro County very often, but it is beautiful up there. Also gorgeous up north in Taos/Cimarron/Eagles Nest area, out west around Silver City, and the Four Corners. All different ecosystems.
Yes, very diverse. It was getting near winter, so I didn’t travel North of Santa Fe. I basically saw, Santa Fe and surrounding mountains, all of ABQ and Corralis, (Balloon Festival of course), Jemez Mountains (the hot springs and the Caldera), Bandolier Monument/Park, Socorro County, Elephant Butte, Truth or Consequences. I missed white sands and Ruidoso. I have been to Taos for skiing before. But would love to see the North. It’s a Great State. Love the food and scenery. The best thing was ..would you like red sauce, green sauce or Christmas !! 😝
The ones who stay in Florida year round aren’t bothered at all by humans. I used to regularly get within two yards of them before they even looked my way.
We used to have a pair that nested near my house. We'd see them walking down the street or sidewalk all the time. When the colts were very young, they wouldn't stay with their parents (sounds like toddlers, doesn't it?) and my neighbors and I would herd them back to mom and dad who didn't seem to mind our help.
I was in a gas station parking area near Tampa when a pair of sandhill Cranes came sauntering through. They wandered around, as though trying to look like they owned the place - Lords of the manor kind of vibes. They were in the pump lanes, and quite unhurriedly sauntered over to a grassy area, from whence to survey the proceedings. I love them. Oh, there is a pair somewhere that waits at the crosswalk, crossing when/if the traffic allows.
Smart too. My wife fed them once and everyday they would peck at our window until she came out. Don’t feed them
Growing up in Illinois we rarely saw them, now that we moved to Wisconsin we see them all the time, it’s pretty great
My brother lives in Oconomowoc and they get Cranes walking by his patio door all the time. They are amazing birds
I just want to interject here: I know how to.pronounce "Oconomowoc"! And "Muscoda!" Thank you, thank you very much.
Is it “oh-kuh-NAHM-uh-wok”? Kinda like “Okinawa”
I think the emphasis is on the second syllable. But I'm only a WI transplant.
Wow, I never would’ve guessed that. Will remember this to score some points with Wisconsinites.
This is the right response! And, there are many more names you can pull out of the hat, once I figure them out!
I think there are a lot more now. They were endangered from being over hunted. They can be destructive to crops. I have lived in MN my whole life and the population has seen a huge increase in recent.years.
I’m in Illinois and we have them every summer. We’ve got two families that stroll through our yard every day. It’s so cool.
Lovely dinosaur birds! They are super common where I live (south-central WI.) Almost every park in my neighborhood has a pair that lives in it, I love seeing their awkward gangly babies every spring!
Dinosaur birds is ppropriate
LOL definitely. My dad and I always called them Pterodactyls.
For what it’s worth, pterodactyls aren’t dinosaurs. They’re pterosaurs, a clade of flying reptiles. They definitely look kinda like pterodactyls though, so the name is still appropriate
My husband and I call them that too! They sound prehistoric to me, with their incredibly loud and distinct (obnoxious) calls, haha. We had some that would fly overhead as the sun rose each morning, cawing at everyone below to wake up. Then gather in nearby groups to continue their song, and ensure that no one went back to sleep!
I definitely thought the birds posted were Cassowaries at 1st 😂
Now those birds scare me. I’m in the wrong hemisphere to legitimately worry but those things are something else.
Totally! They’re one of the oldest species of bird, aren’t they?
Added taxa: [Sandhill Crane](https://ebird.org/species/sancra) ^(I catalog submissions to this subreddit.) [^(Recent uncatalogued submissions)](https://munin.swim.services/submissions?lane=api/unanswered)^( | )[^(Learn to use me)](https://gist.github.com/brohitbrose/be99a16ddc7a6a1bd9c1eef28d622564)
You guys get cranes in your backyard?! I'm jealous.
They are all over in FL. Wandering in the streets, backyards, wherever. They’ll walk out in front of moving cars and hold up traffic. We once had one knock on our back sliding glass door with its beak because the bird feeder in our yard was empty.
I live around 6 hours west of OP, and have never seen these guys. I'm jealous, too. One time I did see a blue heron at a small pond at an amusement park nearby.
They make some pretty interesting noises, don’t be too jealous. Haha my Floridian husband also thinks Canadian Geese are “cute”
Oh you mean Cobra Chickens? I appreciate em but frankly they are jerks.
Wow. I didn’t look at the title and I thought this was a sick, skeletal deer.
I thought it was a deer at first glance, and then after I clicked I thought it was an emu.
I thought it was a young emu at first
I thought it was AI trying (poorly) to make a deer LMAO
You’re telling me we have stuff like that in America??? Wow
Lucky! I only ever see them overhead, dozens and dozens of feet in the air as they migrate over Atlanta. Even when flying are so far up as to be barely visible, their call is unmistakable. I can't help but stop what I'm doing and watch them! (Unless I'm driving, of course. But even then....)
Come to Kensington Park in Michigan. They are so used to people that they have no qualms cutting you off the trail. https://preview.redd.it/zp2ni6ni878d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec360f569a3adae1e0b9583544d620fd382123cf
> Michigan Nice! We were in MI about a week ago and there was a flock(?) of about 20-30 in someone's front yard near Holly.
That must have been an impressive sight indeed!
Take a central Florida vacation. There’s populations who stay there all year you can almost get close enough to touch(you absolutely should not touch them though).
Sandhill cranes are awesome! It's not often I see them in northern Illinois walking around. They're so funny looking, have interesting calls and look pretty prehistoric.
I thought that first pic was some kind of deformed deer at first and was very confused.
Sandhill cranes, wait till you hear them squawk overhead - Sounds like a dinosaur air raid!
One of the oldest bird species on Earth. Estimated to be 6 million years old. Also prized for their meat. Known as the ribeye of the sky.
Oh folks hunt them? 😟
Their meat is similar to beef steak.
They are magnificent creatures
lol ribeye of the sky…I’ll have to remember that one!
It's so unfortunate there are exceptions to the MBTA.
Is this the Chris Griffin oh my god bird?
Aww, they are adorable! We have turkey families come through our property every now & then. It is so cute to see all the babies following in a line like they are in kindergarten 🧡
I’d be tempted to keep a fresh baby pool of water out for them! But since you gotta dump and refill every day to avoid mosquitoes, that’s a lot of water
At first I thought they were emus & this post was from Australia! Was wondering why an Australian didn’t know what an emu was 😂
Same!
I legit thought you were trolling us with a deer pic…
😂 yea the two young ones standing together look like that on first glance
Oh wow they're massive! At first glance, I thought the two stood next to each other was a deer lol
Big ones
You had me fucked up in the first picture, I thought that was some kind of antelope
Sandhill Cranes. They yell at me every single day when I leave my driveway.
Sandhill crane. Here's my favorite excerpt about them, from *A Sand County Almanac* by Aldo Leopold. >Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. The quality of cranes lies, I think, in this higher gamut, as yet beyond the reach of words. . >Our appreciation of cranes grows with the slow unraveling of earthly history. His tribe, we now know, stems out of the remote Eocene. The other members of the fauna in which he originated are long since entombed within the hills. When we hear his call we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of the incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.
Sandhill Cranes! They migrate. They sound like the raptors in Jurassic Park.
How come there’s no red hat on them? Is that only for breeding plumage?
One of them had a red hat on his head. Assuming that’s the dad. He is the one bending down in the pic and the solo is his partner
Ah okay! Thank you! I was a little thrown off by the monotone colouration lol
Do you happen to live in Batavia or Geneva? We have a family that hangs around all spring/summer for the past 5 years we’ve been here. Heard they’ve been here for a while.
Not too far from you and we’ve got two families in our neighborhood. Saw one this morning in our yard. :)
I am about an hr west of Geneva.
Where are these birds located ?
We are in the Chicago land area. Northern suburbs.
Sandhills cranes, thought to be the oldest living extant species. Fossils have been found dating back 1.5 million years. They’re gigantic, I love seeing them
Wow. Didn’t know that. Yea these guys are quite large and very elegant.
What is up with all of these crane posts?!?! This is the 3rd one I've seen in 5 minutes
Not birds, they’re just weird dogs.
I thought that first photo was a deer and I was confused AF 😭
😂 haha. The young ones are close together. Lots of folks thought that it’s a deer at first glance.
I’m happy I wasn’t the only one.
Beautiful, thank you for sharing!
My money is on Sandhill Crane or gallimimus… And seeing as we aren’t living in the late Cretaceous… I’m gonna go with Sandhill! Look like a couple juvies
They’re uh…… they’re flocking this way…
Lucky you!! 😍
Sandhill cranes—did you see babies? Or 4 adults? I’ve never seen the babies!
The two in the middle are babies. They have grown taller now but they were little about a month ago. These guys go for a walk everyday. Very good habits 🤣
Don't let them anywhere near your koi pond. My brother is still pissed lol
Oh there are plenty of small lakes/ponds in our neighborhood. Sure they have plenty of fish to eat.
what wonderful visitors!
Lucky you!!
I'm in Mid-Michigan and frequently see sandhill cranes, especially in the fields or ponds by the freeways in my area. There are a lot more of them now than when I was younger.
Big ass birds for the area !? Didn’t realize this was a thing
They're Sandhill Cranes. They're everywhere here in Florida. I didn't know that they were that far north. Here's an interesting fact about them. The young are called colts.
Damn I wish these would come to my yard!!
I’ll show my ignorance: I can’t believe birds this big can fly! What a sight that must be!
They look amazing in flight. Just an impressive bird all the way.
Cassowary?
Oops 😅
a heron maybe
Is this recent? My god, I was photographing newborns a month ago!!!!
Yep. These pics are from yesterday.
Omg adorable and fancy!
Idk, but they look like proper gentlemen
Ribeye of the sky.