Robin's Great Coloring Pages: Flower the Jenny Turkey in a Narrow-leaf Cottonwood Tree coloring page

Today's free coloring page is a young turkey named Flower.

She is a young female turkey so she is called a Jenny. . . and she is in a tree in this drawing.

This is my free coloring pages blog.

Flower the Jenny Turkey in a Narrow-leaf Cottonwood Tree

Let's talk turkey... or at least turkey terms. A full-grown male turkey is called a tom. So we say Tom Turkey. Adult male turkeys are also called Gobblers. A full-grown female turkey is called a hen turkey or turkey hen. A baby turkey is called a chick or a poult. Young turkeys, but not very young ones, have other names. A young male turkey is called a Jake. A young female turkey is called a Jenny.

Wild turkeys are the biggest game bird in North America. They were hunted by the Native Americans and also by early European settlers. The wild Gobblers or large males can weigh up to 16 lbs. (7.3 kg.). Some REALLY big Toms are even larger! These large Tom Turkeys can be over 3 feet (around a meter) long. Females or Hens weigh around 9-10 lbs, (4-4.5 kg.).

Turkeys first evolved around 23 million years ago in North America. These were not the same species as the turkeys we have now but they were the ancestors to the modern turkeys. Now there are 2 species of wild turkeys that sometimes are aggressive towards humans. This has necessitated people learning to be aggressive towards wild turkeys that come into their yard. In Brookline, Massachusetts the officials are recommending that people squirt turkeys with their water hose, allow their leashed dogs to bark at the turkeys, bang pots and pans to make loud noises, open umbrellas at them, wave your arms as you shout, and never back down. Wild Tom Turkeys live with their harem of Hens and there is a pecking order where the big Gobbler is at the top. The males in Brookline are acting like humans are their subordinates in the pecking order.

This drawing is based on a turkey that we met and petted today at a Farmers' Market in Logan, Utah. She and her 2 friends were very friendly. The other two hen turkeys were named: Debbie and Trudy. In this drawing, I drew Flower as a younger version of herself. Here she is a young female turkey or Jenny up in a Narrow-leaf Cottonwood Tree.

Narrow-leaf Cottonwood Trees are fairly large trees that are found in the Western part of North America in riparian areas. Riparian means river or stream areas where the elevation is between 3900 and 7900 feet, (1,200 - 2,400 meters). We live between these elevations and have seen flocks of wild turkeys several times - even this year. By the way, I love all the Cottonwood Trees! The leaves are actually rather waxy in appearance and in the Narrow-leaf Cottonwood the leaves are lightly serrated, long, narrow, pinnate leaves, not the deeper serrated and somewhat heart-shaped leaves of the Fremont Cottonwood.

The Scientific name for the Narrow-leaf Cottonwood is Populus angustifolia. The scientific name for the wild turkeys of North America are: The Wild Turkey found in the USA and Canada and parts of northern Mexico: Meleagris gallopavo. . . and . . . found in the Yucatan Penninsula in Guatemala, Belize, and Southern Mexico is Meleagris ocellata.

If you wonder why I did not draw a male turkey this time... remember that you almost always see the Tom Turkeys or Gobblers because they (like many male birds) have spectacular plumage. But since it is Mother's Day I decided to give some attention to the females! I will post a drawing or two below of male turkeys that I drew previously. I also realized that I had almost never drawn a Jenny or a Hen Turkey.

NOTE: This drawing, in printable form, is found by clicking on the button labeled: Animals. Then scroll down to the bottom of the printables list. New drawings are always at the bottom of the list. Have fun coloring! And thanks to the farmer who brought his turkeys to the Farmers' Market today for us to see and pet. Below is a photo I took of Flower.