Australian Brushturkey

The Australian Brushturkey is a large, ground-dwelling bird with glossy black-brown body plumage, long legs, and a bare, wrinkled red head and neck. A pendulous folded wattle of skin hangs at the throat, typically bright yellow in most populations though color can vary geographically. Despite the name, it is not closely related to true turkeys but belongs to the megapode family, birds known for incubating their eggs using heat generated by decomposing vegetation rather than by sitting on them.

Males build and tend enormous mounds of leaf litter and soil, sometimes several meters across and over a meter high, using their large feet to rake material together and regulate the internal temperature by adding or removing material. The species has become increasingly common and bold in suburban gardens along the east coast, where it can be a familiar, if sometimes unwelcome, presence for its habit of scratching up freshly planted garden beds.

Key field marks

• Bare, wrinkled red skin covering the head and neck
• Yellow folded wattle hanging at the throat (color can vary by region)
• Glossy blackish-brown body plumage with a laterally flattened tail often held raised
• Large, powerful feet adapted for raking leaf litter

Similar species

• Malleefowl is smaller, fully feathered on the head with mottled camouflage plumage, and found in drier mallee habitat rather than rainforest.
• No other Australian bird shares the combination of an all-black body with a bare red head and neck.

Habitat

Inhabits rainforest, wet eucalypt forest, and vine scrub, and has become common in suburban gardens and parks in parts of its range, particularly in southeastern Queensland and coastal New South Wales.

Range

Found along the east coast of Australia from Cape York in far north Queensland south to around the Illawarra region of New South Wales.

Migration

Non-migratory and largely sedentary, though individuals may wander locally, especially young birds dispersing from natal territories.

Behavior

Males spend much of the breeding season constructing and maintaining incubation mounds, raking huge quantities of leaf litter into a pile and monitoring its internal temperature with sensitive tissue in the bill; females visit multiple mounds to lay eggs, and chicks hatch fully independent, needing no parental care.

Voice

Generally quiet, giving occasional low grunts, clucks, and booming calls, especially around the mound during the breeding season.

Feeding

Forages on the ground by raking through leaf litter for fallen fruit, seeds, and invertebrates such as insects and worms.

Nesting

Does not build a conventional nest; instead, eggs are buried within a large mound of composting leaf litter and soil, with heat from decomposition (and sun exposure) incubating the eggs, tended and regulated by the male.