Not Your Average Turkey

This Aussie bird, variously called a Brush Turkey or a Bush Turkey, is quite commonly seen though quite startling the first time you come across one.

They are big - around 75cm long and with an 85cm wingspan. They build communal mounds of leaves and earth which heats up as it breaks down, thus incubating the eggs. Strangely, if the mound's temperature remains around 34C then even numbers of male and femal chicks hatch; lower than that, there are significantly more males, higher and there are more females. Sometimes a mound contains up to 50 eggs at a time, and the mounds are added to and re-used.

I spotted this one as it was about to go into the library! Remarkable.