Australian Brush Turkey
Lake Eacham, August 2021.
The most striking feature of this bird is the bare red head with the yellow lower neck portion which is referred to as a a wattle. The head is covered with black hair like bristles. The bill is black and the eyes brown.
Bushland Beach, December 2019.
They like damp warm coastal forest, parks and gardens. They forage on and in the ground so you will often see them scraping at the ground. They eat insects, native fruits and seeds.
Bushland Beach, December 2019.
They usually run away when disturbed but they are quite common so I rarely take photos of them.
They create a mound, maintained by the male, about 4 metres in diameter and 1.5 metres high to incubate their eggs in. Usually 18-24 eggs. Both these nests are in Barron Gorge.