Male ocellated turkey singing while strutting--a common behavior.

The ocellated turkey's loudest call is the mate attraction song of the adult male which corresponds to the gobble of our wild turkey. The local Spanish-speaking guides call a singing male a cantador, which means singer. The song is sung from the roost at dawn, one to five songs per minute, and from time to time during the day. When he goes back to roost in the evening, the male sings until dark or even after dark.

Hear the mating song of the adult male ocellated turkey.

The song has two distinct components. The first tones sound like beats on a bongo drum or tympani. These low-pitched sounds are able to penetrate dense vegetation and usually precede the complex song. Note: Depending on your modem speed, these may take a minute to load.

• Listen to the bongo tones followed by the song.
• Listen to a loud example of the song without the bongo tones.

Three calls will sometimes attract adult males during the mating season. One is a loud whistle, another is a cluck, and another is the mating song of the male. We have electronic broadcasting devices that will attract the adult male during the mating season. We are attempting to develop an instrument to manually imitate some of the more effective attraction calls.

We have had good success calling in adult males using the clucking call as imitated on a wooden owl hooter. The instrument was manufactured by Doug Camp's turkey call company, which is now out of business because of Doug's recent death.

If I am able to have Doug Camp's cluckers in stock, it will be posted on this web site.