Brush-turkeys are commonly referred to as pests as when they make your garden their home they create havoc and give us home owners a big job continually trying to clean up the mess they cause. It is on-going as no sooner do you neaten up your garden they simple destroy it again. As the brush-turkeys are protected they need to be safely and humanly captured and relocated to an appropriate environment.
Interesting Brush-Turkey facts
The brush-turkey is one of three Australian species of mound-building birds or megapodes. Brush-turkeys are a large bird as they grow to 60–75cm long and have a wingspan of 85cm. The male and female brush-turkeys are similar in size. The brush-turkey is a blue-black colour and has an upright fanlike tail and grey-edged breast feathers. They have strong legs and a featherless deep red head and neck. The male brush-turkey has a large, bright yellow wattle that hangs from its neck, whereas the females is smaller and paler. Chicks don’t look much like their parents, as they’re small, plump birds with rich brown feathers. Chicks grow fast and within a few months a chick will have dull blue-black plumage and the characteristic upright tail. Its head and neck will have become a featherless rich pink.
Capture and Removal of Brush-Turkey
We recently were called and asked to capture and re-locate a brush-turkey. The brush-turkey was bringing shrubs, debris and bark from a local park into the customers garden area and piling it all up, as well as scratching away and destroying the customers lawn and garden beds. No sooner had the customer cleaned up the garden and the brush-turkey would once again bring in more debris back into the garden. After countless attempts of trying to discourage the bird by way of making loud nosies to shoo it & chase it way and continually cleaning up behind it and breaking down the nest it was building. Everything tried was in vane, once the brush-turkey makes it mind up to build its nest in a location it is almost impossible to discourage it.
Trapping a Brush-Turkey
We placed our non-harmful trapping cage in the garden area and the video below shows the bird venturing into the cage and we successfully trapped him. We safely relocated him to a parkland area with a surrounding environment far from a nearby busy road.