{"id":1998,"date":"2019-11-27T18:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T18:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/?p=1998"},"modified":"2021-10-31T17:04:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T17:04:30","slug":"runner-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/runner-up\/","title":{"rendered":"RUNNER-UP"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
I don\u2019t know what American grade school kids are being taught these days\u2014my days at Oakville Elementary ended a couple of decades ago (okay, fine\u2014several<\/i> decades ago) so I don\u2019t have direct access to 21st<\/sup> century homework assignments. But I\u2019ll go out on a limb here and bet that most of them know the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus<\/i>) won the 1782 version of American Idol<\/i>, and that it did so by edging out celebrity judge Benjamin Franklin\u2019s favorite contestant, the Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo<\/i>).<\/h5>\n
That long-ago contest had little in common with modern day reality TV. For one thing, neither bird has great pipes. Revolutionary era citizens were never asked to call or text in their votes. Also, the bald eagle has held on to national fame longer than fellow white-headed winner Taylor Hicks, while the Wild Turkey hasn\u2019t exactly proven the voters wrong by, say, winning an Academy Award, Jennifer Hudson-style.<\/h5>\n
On the other hand, we don\u2019t set aside a day each November (or any month, for that matter) on which the eagle takes center stage.\u00a0 So in honor of Thanksgiving, I\u2019d like to briefly sing the praises of the runner-up\u2026 and not just as the star performer at a holiday dinner.<\/h5>\n
Shortly after Congress immortalized the eagle on the Great Seal of the United States, Franklin shared his disappointment and misgivings over their choice in a letter to his daughter. Given the sparse pelt on his own pate, one might expect ol\u2019 Ben would view the bald eagle as a kindred spirit, or at least harbor a bit of sympathy. Instead, his criticism was as harsh as any doled out by Simon Cowell, describing our new national symbol as \u201ca Bird of bad moral character\u201d who \u201cdoes not get his Living honestly,\u201d preferring to sup on rotting fish or, worse yet, stealing fresh seafood from more industrious raptors like the osprey (Pandion haliaetus<\/i>). What\u2019s more, Ben argued the eagle is cowardly, evidenced by how easily it can be driven away by much smaller birds defending their nests and offspring. Not exactly the role model image our fledgling country hoped to cultivate.<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Wild Turkey, according to Franklin, is \u201cin Comparison a much more respectable bird,\u201d a \u201ctrue original Native of America\u201d and a \u201cBird of Courage\u201d who \u201cwould not hesitate to attack\u201d any invader and defend his home turf.<\/h5>\n
This description might not square with your expectations after years of holiday stories featuring dim-witted, less than inspiring Butterballs-to-be, and this is because the domestic turkey is but a pale and passive imitation of the real-deal.<\/h5>\n
Wild tom turkeys (as the males are called) will most definitely defend their breeding territory against potential rivals. Large and heavy, they are unexpectedly agile flyers, aggressive fighters, social, sometimes playful, intelligent, and adaptive. To my knowledge they\u2019ve never been accused of theft or caught dining on carrion (their omnivorous diet consists primarily of acorns and other nuts, seeds, fruit, buds and leaves, insects and the occasional small reptile or amphibian).<\/h5>\n
<\/h5>\n
\"\"<\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n
As far as moral character goes\u2026 well, you know rock stars. Toms strut their stuff in a flamboyant palette of iridescent red, green, purple, copper, bronze, and gold feathers worthy of Adam Lambert. No piercings or tattoos, but oozing cool with a Beat-worthy statement\u00a0beard<\/em> of stiff bristles starting just above the wishbone, wattles<\/em> (flesh hanging from the head and\/or neck), caruncles<\/em> (fleshy growths on the head), snoods<\/em> (long fleshy object draped across a tom\u2019s beak), spurs<\/em> and other body art. Their ladies, in keeping with general avian fashion trends, tend to be more conservatively dressed but they can strut like a runway model \u00a0when warranted, complete with long legs and outlandish makeup.<\/h5>\n
Out of the spotlight, turkey hens are attentive mothers to their precocial\u00a0offspring, in contrast to the menfolk, who are polygamous absentee fathers. (Male bald eagles, it must be said, are actively involved in their children\u2019s upbringing. Given his own tom cat reputation, Ben might have been well served to heed the old saying about people who live in glass houses before he started throwing verbal rocks at our national avian symbol.)<\/h5>\n
Like the bald eagle, Wild Turkeys experienced a perilous decline in their numbers during in the last century, due to over-hunting and habitat loss (rather than DDT exposure, as was the case for so many of our birds of prey). Game agencies took action to protect the species and have been successful in helping the population rebound. So much so, in fact, that Wild Turkeys have not only returned to rural fields, pastures, and woodlands but have begun to tour in many major metropolitan areas as well. In some parts of the country spotting a flock of Wild Turkeys foraging near a highway, hanging out downtown, or feasting at a backyard bird feeder is no longer a novelty.<\/h5>\n
That means a growing number of Americans now have a ticket to see this national treasure up close and personal more than once a year, and at venues other than a serving platter.<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02012 Next-Door Nature\u2014no reprints without written permission from the author (I\u2019d love for you to share my work. Just ask first.). Thanks to these photographers for making their work available through a Creative Commons license: Teddy Llovet<\/a>, keeva999<\/a>, Mic Stolz<\/a>, and Peter Patau<\/a>.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD I don\u2019t know what American grade school kids are being taught these days\u2014my days at Oakville Elementary ended a couple of decades ago (okay, fine\u2014several decades ago) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":0,"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[424,16],"tags":[124,125,126,6,64,35,127,128,129,31,12,130,32,131,14,15,132,17],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds-wildlife","category-wildlife","tag-adam-lambert","tag-american-idol","tag-benjamin-franklin","tag-birds","tag-ecology","tag-habitat","tag-jennifer-hudson","tag-meleagris-gallopavo","tag-national-symbol","tag-natural-history","tag-nature","tag-osprey","tag-suburban-wildlife","tag-taylor-hicks","tag-urban-wildlife","tag-watchable-wildlife","tag-wild-turkey","tag-wildlife"],"yoast_head":"\nRUNNER-UP - 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