Brush turkey

The Australian Brush Turkey lives on the east coast from Cape York to Illawarra. They are very easy to spot, with distinctive red heads, bright yellow necks, wattles and dull black plumage with grey-tipped feathers on the breast. Brush turkeys can reach 70cm in length and, though usually ground-dwelling, are capable of flying into trees to roost at night or escape danger.

Residents have reported an increase in the Brush Turkey population in Ku-ring-gai over the last few years. While this is wonderful news for our local wildlife, they can be a nuisance for residents as they sometimes scavenge food or build large nesting mounds in backyards.

Turkey mounds

Disturbance of turkey mounds or any native species or its habitat on Council owned land is prohibited. If a Brush Turkey is starting to construct a mound on private property and causing you concern, listed below are some methods you can try. 

Once a male Brush Turkey begins building a mound in your yard it can be very difficult to discourage. The breeding season begins in August, ending by around February. During the breeding season, it is illegal to damage or destroy eggs in the mound or prevent chicks from leaving the mound.

• Reduce or remove potential food sources – ensure compost heaps are covered.
• Reduce the availability of building material for their mounds. Keep piles of spare mulch covered with tarpaulins.
• If a male starts building a new mound, you can cover the mound with a heavy duty tarpaulin or shade cloth. This may encourage the male to change location. Note that this is only legal in the first week or two of mound-building before the females lay eggs in the mounds.
• Stop the turkeys from scratching up your yard by using a heavy mulch of pebbles. Placing pebbles or river gravel around trees will help protect their roots.
• To protect your vegetable gardens, consider either raised garden beds, or fence in the garden with shade cloth all around. Brush-turkeys don’t usually scratch in areas they can’t see, so anything that’s above their height, ca. 70 cm high, should be safer from their scratching. Only very adventurous individuals might hop over fences or into raised garden beds, and in this case, a higher fence, or a cover across the top, needs to be installed.
• Pruning any tree shading the mound (mounds require over 85% cent shade).
• Protecting plants with tree guards.
• Laying palm fronds over vegetable gardens - brush turkeys do not like them.
• Diverting the bird's attention to a less valuable area of your garden by building a compost mound in a very shady location.
• During the non-breeding season once eggs have hatched (March to July), the mound can be dismantled and compost from inside the mound can be used as garden fertiliser.
• When planning your garden, consider the use of rock combined with planting species that build a thick groundcover, such as Lomandra, Dianella, Bromeliad and some Grevillea varieties.

Brush Turkeys are protected by State legislation. It is illegal to harm or trap them without formal licences and approvals. This includes damaging or destroying the eggs in the mound or preventing chicks from leaving the mound.

 

View local expert Ann Goeth's Brush Turkey fact sheet.(PDF, 646KB)