Wild turkeys in farm field near Manhattan, Kansas.
Date 4 October 2011, 13:35:15
Source USDA NRCS Photo Gallery: NRCSKS02043.tif http://photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov/netpub/server.np?find&catalog=catalog&template=detail.np&field=itemid&op=matches&value=4267&site=PhotoGallery
Author Photo by Jeff Vanuga, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NRCSKS02043_-_Kansas_(4267)(NRCS_Photo_Gallery).jpg

The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is an upland ground bird native to North America and is the heaviest member of the diverse Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which was originally derived from a southern Mexican subspecies of wild turkey (not the related ocellated turkey). Although native to North America, the turkey probably got its name from the domesticated variety being imported to Britain in ships coming from the Levant via Spain. The British at the time therefore associated the wild turkey with the country Turkey and the name prevails.
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Subfamily: Meleagridinae
Genus: Meleagris
Species: Meleagris gallopavo Linnaeus, 1758
Subspecies:
Eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) (Viellot, 1817)
Osceola wild turkey or Florida wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo osceola) (Scott, 1890)
Rio Grande wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia) (Sennett, 1879)
Merriam's wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo merriami) (Nelson, 1900)
Gould's wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo mexicana) (Gould, 1856)
South Mexican wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo) (Linnaeus, 1758)