Turkey (bird)
genus of large ground-feeding birds native to the Americas From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris, native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) of eastern and central North America and the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata) of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. In the United States, people traditionally eat turkey on the holiday of Thanksgiving.
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Naming
When people from Europe first saw turkeys in the Americas they thought the birds were a type of guinea fowl (Numida meleagris). This bird had been brought to central Europe from the country of Turkey. The name of that country stuck as the name of the bird.[1]
The confusion with the name is also seen in the scientific name: meleagris is Greek for guinea-fowl.
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