Extra credit! recently updated !
this entry was posted in class news on november 23, 2016 by joshua melvin
read the following article, and list 3 or more pieces of text evidence that make turkeys better than eagles! comment with your 3 quotes to earn extra credit. (don’t forget quotation marks and the source of each quote).
ex: according to benjamin franklin, the turkey is “a much more respectable bird.”
our sage ben franklin was savvy when it came to turkey vs. eagle
by orlando sentinel, adapted by newsela staff
11.27.13
grade level 6 word count 705
you know that turkey you’re going to eat for dinner? imagine if it was the nation’s symbol.
there’s an argument to be dished out, with a side of humor, that ben franklin had it right about turkeys and eagles. franklin was one of our founding fathers.
the turkey – wild ones, anyway – is a “much more respectable bird,” franklin wrote. the bald eagle is a slob that fools america with its piercing eyes. ok, those weren’t his exact words. but that was the idea.
evidence can be found at this florida landfill. eagles hang with vultures, a bunch of slackers with a hunger for garbage.
something to gobble about
meanwhile, turkeys never join the countless birds that fight over garbage like disgusting chicken bones and rotten vegetables.
turkeys are fitness nuts, grazing for seeds, acorns, mushrooms and occasional frog legs. and they have the muscles to hit the afterburners if bothered. they can run at 20 miles per hour, or fly at 55 mph which is the speed limit on many highways.
if you heard that a turkey is so stupid it will look up at rain and drown, that’s fiction. don’t even doubt their laser eyes and sharp ears.
hunters know if they move a muscle, a gobbler will see it from a mile away and escape. their ability to pinpoint the direction and distance of sound in heavy woods is astounding, say biologists.
if you are what you eat, then turkeys taste like nature. a wild turkey has “a lot less fat” than a store-bought roaster, said tom hughes of the national wild turkey federation.
if eagles are what they wolf down at landfills, like the rotting sausage they feast on, then yuck.
what they may do best is make that pretty weird face on the back of a $1 bill.
eagles and vultures specialize in scavenging. they’ll pick through the remains of dead animals and plants for food.
an eagle eye for free food
franklin was bummed that the nation’s symbol of patriotism is a thief. it will perch in a tree while an osprey works to snatch a fish from the water. then the eagle will swoop in, scaring the osprey until it drops its meal, and do dinner.
full disclosure: turkeys also bully – themselves. they are known to catch their reflections on the side of a car and try to fight with what they see.
a standard male eagle in florida stands 2 feet, 4 inches. it weighs less than 10 pounds and has a wingspan of nearly 6 feet.
what they’ve learned to do is constantly fight to stay alive, said matt smith, audubon florida eaglewatch coordinator.
typical turkeys stand 3 feet, 4 inches. they weigh 19 pounds and have wingspans of 4 feet, 6 inches.
“they are a beautiful bird,” said roger shields, a florida scientist. “when they get the sun on them, i think they are just as pretty as an eagle.”
one thing in common
both birds made legendary comebacks.
many were dying from pesticides in the u. s. the number of eagles fell to fewer than 500 breeding pairs by the early 1960s, but there are more than 10,000 of them today.
when the nation’s forests were mowed down through the early 1900s, turkeys declined to a few hundred thousand, but now number more than 6 million.
biologists nursing them to health found striking differences.
a wild turkey captured for medical care may display a truly wild spirit, nearly slamming itself to death to escape.
injured eagles taken to the audubon center for birds of prey in florida seem to respond with: “wow! food, nice people, awesome vulture stink.”
if there is something truly american about eagles at florida landfills, it’s the appeal of fast food in abundance.
workers at the landfill said a single eagle showed up in the early ’80s. the next year there were two, then four the year after. an engineer counted 90 within 30 minutes two years ago.
as numbers rose, their behavior shifted from rodent hunter to garbage lover. florida scientist michelle vandeventer suspects eagles are at least partly drawn to landfills for companionship and relaxation.
but the birds are definitely street smart, vandeventer said. “mama eagles don’t raise fools.”