How a gobbler drums

[Tom007]

Cool thread. It appears from this article, they start strutting and drumming when they are very young. I wonder if any of these little guys ever came in strutting to our calls, and we never saw them...lol

[Turkeybutt]

I'll get back to ya'll what my thoughts are on the subject after my visit to my Ex's, Old #1
She did lot of squawking so the process might be similar.
Can't rightly say right now since I try my best to avoid her at all costs but for the sake of this discussion, I'll take one for the team. I'll go there and observe, take notes and file a report here at OG if I make it back unscaved!
I don't know exactly how she did it, but I've seen it, heard it, and felt it enough to know it's vocal, yes very vocal!
I know in the past when I ruffled her feathers, she would get to spittin, stompin' and a drumin' forcing air in and out. You can actually see spit coming out depending on the situation, or what she felt I did wrong.
She would take a deep breath to puff up before she would let go and when the drumming sound occurred I remember a bit of "shuddering" at the end as well. I think the sound is a form of air escaping her body past the vocal cords, as if running out of air. There was a deep guttural rattle as well. I would hear this  rattle at the end of her squawking if I was close, and it had somewhat of a vibration to it like drumming. Yes, I could definitely feel it if I was close enough, so maybe the two sounds are related!
Here again depending on the situation she could expand those lungs rather quickly and continue the squawkin', spittin' and a drumin' for an extending period of time!
It's amazing how they do that!

[GobbleNut]

I'll get back to ya'll what my thoughts are on the subject after my visit to my Ex's, Old #1
She did lot of squawking so the process might be similar.
Can't rightly say right now since I try my best to avoid her at all costs but for the sake of this discussion, I'll take one for the team. I'll go there and observe, take notes and file a report here at OG if I make it back unscaved!
I don't know exactly how she did it, but I've seen it, heard it, and felt it enough to know it's vocal, yes very vocal!
I know in the past when I ruffled her feathers, she would get to spittin, stompin' and a drumin' forcing air in and out. You can actually see spit coming out depending on the situation, or what she felt I did wrong.
She would take a deep breath to puff up before she would let go and when the drumming sound occurred I remember a bit of "shuddering" at the end as well. I think the sound is a form of air escaping her body past the vocal cords, as if running out of air. There was a deep guttural rattle as well. I would hear this  rattle at the end of her squawking if I was close, and it had somewhat of a vibration to it like drumming. Yes, I could definitely feel it if I was close enough, so maybe the two sounds are related!
Here again depending on the situation she could expand those lungs rather quickly and continue the squawkin', spittin' and a drumin' for an extending period of time!
It's amazing how they do that!

  They don't have to be "exes" to make those same sounds! 

[Turkeybutt]

True, they don't!

[Garrett Trentham]

Gobblers only do the drumming when they are in full strut

I beg to differ. Definitive statements are dangerous when referencing any animal behavior.

I've watched gobblers, on two different occasions and hundreds of miles apart, drum loudly without going into strut. Each time the gobbler was within 60yds of me in plain sight. One was in a field and one in the woods. They were both standing erect and when they would drum, their head would pull back slightly, their wingtips would drop a couple inches, and the tip of their tail feathers would rise a couple inches. Maybe into a 1/4 strut at most, but certainly not a full strut. Immediately after drumming they would raise their head and look/listen intently for a response from the hen they thought was in the area. Their behavior suggested to me that they were expecting a response from the noise. In both of those instances, there was no noticeable "spit" associated with the drum, just the low frequency reverberating drum.

I think gobblers use this "vocalization" even more in areas where increased hunting pressure has curtailed gobbling.


Generally, when a gobbler is in full strut, there's a lot going on that's making noise. They're probably sucking in air to puff out their, lungs, crop, and chest, they're dragging their wing feathers along the ground, they're making some sort of reverberation in their chest, and they could well be making additional noises with their vocal chords.

Add to all of this, as observers we are never of sound mind when in the presence of a strutting gobbler... so the world may never know.

[Howie g]

I've seen gobblers drum with out strutting a few times also .

[Marc]

For those that say a bird was not strutting when drumming, what do you mean by that?  Tail fan is not up?  To me, strutting is tail-fan up, wings dragging...  But I would think a bird could still drum if his fan was not up???  Would wings down and dragging, but fan not up, still be strutting?

I have always thought that drumming was a vibration of air from outside the lungs...  (I always figured the crop)  Every bird that I have watched drumming, the bird has a full chest cavity, with wings "down and quivering"...  It does not seem to be something produced from the vocal cords of the bird (as gobbling is).

I figured it was the crop, as there is no other bird I have ever cleaned with a more difficult crop to remove than a turkey.