Turkeys attack

Brush Turkey numbers are on a steady increase in the area, could this be the end of Ku-ring-gai’s gardens? We scratch the surface to find out why the bird is moving into the suburbs and what threat it actually poses.

An adult brush turkey... nature's garden renovator.

Suburban areas in the north of Sydney are becoming the home to an increasing number of large, and often unwanted guests. Brush Turkey numbers are on a steep increase in areas like Ku-ring-gai, which is great news for ornithologists and bad news for gardeners.

The Brush Turkey is a 70 centimetre long, ground dwelling bird, one of 22 species of megapodes, so named for their large feet, which live exclusively in the Australasian region of the world.

One local bird enthusiast confirmed a sighting on the Birding Australia website, claiming to have sighted a male turkey "in a small patch of damp gully bush vegetation behind Alexander Street in Roseville...that was tending a rather large mound".

Dr Ann Goeth from Macquarie University is one of the world's leading authorities on the local bird and believes that the Brush Turkeys' move into the suburbs is the result of a number of factors.

"They find more food, especially in our permanent drought situation," explains Goeth. "People are also planting more rainforest trees, so there are more moist gardens, using mulch which is where Brush Turkey's find food and build their nests."

The Brush Turkey is the largest of the megapode species, which is defined by its large feet and the fact that they are "the only birds in the world that don't incubate their eggs," according to Goeth.

Instead of using body heat to incubate eggs, Brush Turkeys build large mounds, one and a half metres high and four metres in diameter. They often clear a 25 metre diameter space around the incubation mound, ripping up vegetation and ground covering in the process, which is what makes the Brush Turkey the enemy of local gardeners.

"We have had a number of people ring us up to find out what to do," says Simon Nichol from Lane Cove National Park, who euphemistically describes the damage the birds are prone to cause as 'garden modification'. "Most of the time we just try to educate people about the Brush Turkeys, they are quite territorial so there have been cases where we have had to remove them."

Apart from the general nuisance they cause digging mounds and scavenging for food in your garden and compost heap, Brush Turkeys are relatively harmless, although they have been known to attack small dogs.

Goeth's latest study of the Brush Turkey aims to explore the exact reasons for the turkeys' move into the suburbs, their movements around the city limits and the implications it is having on their numbers.

While the protected species is not in danger of becoming extinct, Goeth has already noticed a decrease in the numbers of young, suburban dwelling birds that she attributes to threats such as domestic cats.

Goeth also points out that the Brush Turkey has lived in the area a lot longer than Western colonists, but saw a decrease in numbers during the depression where they were hunted for food and then disappeared to escape the onset of urban sprawl.

"Brush Turkey numbers are definitely on the increase in terms of the last twenty or thirty years, but you have to keep in mind that people have moved into Brush Turkey habitat. The suburbs have been expanding and the birds disappeared for a while during the building phase, but now they are coming back," says Goeth.

Nichol also attributes the recent rise in Brush Turkey sightings as a result of fox baiting in the area, which has eliminated one of the Brush Turkey's most prominent predators.

Further monitoring will hopefully map out the future of Brush Turkeys, yet Goeth is convinced they will survive despite their new suburban threats and foes. "Brush Turkeys have learned very quickly to use human resources such as bins and compost heaps, so you may in human terms describe them as intelligent."