If you love hunting turkeys as much as we do, you should take a crash course in what makes them tick. Start by learning how, when, where and why turkeys use their various vocalizations. Lovett Williams was one of our most important contributors to Turkey & Turkey Hunting Magazine since its inception more than 30 years ago.
Years of in-the-field study gave the author a unique perspective on wild turkey vocalizations. Here are some of his findings.
by Lovett Williams
My work with the turkey’s voice began in 1974 as a sideline to my wild turkey field studies in Florida. My colleague David Austin and I radio-tracked turkeys daily and obtained audio recordings of their calls that would have been almost impossible to gather without radio telemetry. We began recording with parabolic reflector-microphones and later used shotgun mics.
KEE-KEE AND KEE-KEE RUN
The kee-kee is a call young turkeys develop in summer. It stems from the lost whistle of a young poult. There is little difference in tone or rhythm of kee-kees by young male and female poults, but as turkeys grow older, a jake’s voice becomes lower in pitch. The kee-kee run is just a kee-kee with yelping added on the end. Long examples have more than 30 yelp notes, but briefer examples might have only one to three yelps.
One common variation begins with kee notes, followed by yelping notes and ending with additional kee notes. A gravely distressed young turkey might go from kee-keeing to yelping and back several times in the same kee-kee run sequence. By fall, a jake’s calling apparatus is larger than that of a young hen, and his voice is distinctly lower-pitched. Jakes often use the unique four- or five-note kee-kee run. You should use the use kee-kee and kee-kee run for fall calling.
YELPING CALLS
Yelping is a generic call of the wild turkey. The three best-known yelping calls are the tree yelp, lost yelp and plain yelp. We can separate and name those yelping calls based on their functions, but there are a few yelping examples we cannot distinguish by sound alone. The difference is only because of the context in which they are used. Tree yelps are soft yelps made on the roost as turkeys awaken in the morning.
The lost yelp is a loud yelping call used for assembly by turkeys separated from their flocks. A plain yelp is usually louder than a tree yelp but not as loud as a lost yelp. Tree yelp: The tree yelp is the briefest of the yelping calls; a three- to five-note series of yelps given as a flock awakens in the morning on the roost. The call has a nasal quality because it is made with the turkey’s bill closed or nearly so.
The message conveyed by a tree yelp is, “I’m here, are you still there?” Sometimes, every turkey in the flock will answer the roll call with a brief, soft yelp. Bona fide tree yelps cannot be heard far beyond the roosting area, but when tree yelping gives way to louder yelping, much of the vocabulary of the wild turkey can be heard at the roost before the flock flies down. You can hear those calls if you listen closely.
Lost yelp: The typical lost yelp is longer than a plain yelp, with one to 20 or more notes. Lost yelping by hens is often raspy. The louder and longer notes and the greater volume and longer calling series sometimes give the impression of desperation by the caller. A good model would be six to 10 very loud yelps at the same pitch in a steady rhythm. Lost yelping by an adult gobbler is lower-pitched and of slower rhythm than lost yelping by a hen.
The gobbler’s yelping has a hollow character and is seldom raspy. Lost yelping has excellent direction-finding qualities and is used by adult and older young turkeys to assemble after being separated from the flock. The call is useful in fall hunting to call turkeys after a flock has been scattered or to attract the interest of any turkey in the woods that’s seeking company. It’s equally useful in spring hunting because loud calling can be heard farther than softer calls, and gobblers consider lost hens as sexually appealing as they do hens that aren’t lost.
Plain yelp: The plain yelp of the hen has been referred to as a love call, but the implication that it’s a mating call is not correct. The plain yelp is used during all seasons, by both genders and all turkey age classes except poults. In the rules of turkey courtship, a sexually receptive hen goes to a gobbling male.
The notes of a typical plain yelp are evenly separated and are usually at the same pitch and intensity. A good model is four or five quick notes at moderate volume, even rhythm and reasonably high pitch. Gobblers yelp slightly slower and lower and sometimes with a hollow tonal quality. However, adult gobblers can also make very high-pitched plain yelps. Hunters should expect to hear an array of plain yelping variations, including longer renditions that begin with one or two clucks.
PLAIN CLUCK
A plain cluck is a single loud staccato note. The median pitch of a typical adult hen’s cluck is also the loudest call. The call is used mainly to attract the attention of another turkey. Most plain clucks are rendered at intervals of two to five seconds, but occasionally a turkey will cluck so rapidly that the sounds resemble slow cutting.
There is ambiguity in literature about the cluck. John J. Audubon (1831) said it is used as a signal to fly across a river, but in the same book, he said it means that food has been found. Edward McIlhenny (1914) and Henry Davis (1949) recognized the plain cluck as an assembly call, but Davis described the sound as “w-h-o-t,” which I think is the call I have labeled “whit-whit.” Leon Johenning (1962) listed synonyms for the cluck as “quote,” ”chirp,” “pitt,” “pert,” “cut,” “quit” and “gutt.” Word descriptions tell us little more than the call consists of one abrupt note. The plain cluck can be imitated perfectly on most friction callers.
A good model is a series of three or four clucks rendered at two- to three-second intervals. When a turkey coming to a call clucks, it’s asking the caller to show itself.
ALARM PUTT
The alarm putt is a loud, sharply delivered note acoustically similar to the plain cluck. Putt is sometimes written as put or pert and has been described by a few other names. Alarm putts can be very soft to very loud, becoming louder as the level of alarm increases and softer as the sense of alarm subsides.
A turkey in a state of alarm normally departs the scene if danger persists. But if it realizes a perceived danger is not real, each successive alarm putt will be weaker in volume, and the sound finally fades as the turkey resumes its previous activity.
Putting is also used by brood hens to quiet their broods and by other turkeys at various times to show extreme displeasure. One major function of the classic alarm putt is to tell a stalking predator it has been detected. If attacked, the flock will fly and scatter, wasting time and energy and risking exposure to other dangers while separated. Thus, putting to curb an attack is beneficial to turkeys.
The alarm putt is not an encouraging sound to hear when hunting because it means you have been detected by a turkey, and the sound is loud enough to alert other turkeys.
GOBBLE
Everybody knows what gobbling sounds like. The wide range of tonal pitch also imparts carrying power to the sound — high sounds go the distance through open air, and lower pitches penetrate vegetation better. The purpose of gobbling is to announce a gobbler’s location to a hen and the mating readiness of a gobbler. It’s the wild turkey’s only mate-attraction call.
CONCLUSION
Turkeys make other calls, of course, but these are the vocalizations most commonly used in hunting. If you learn to reproduce them on various calling instruments, you’ll be on your way to seeing more turkeys up close. Editor’s note: The late Lovett E. Williams Jr. was one of the most respected and influential wild turkey biologists in North America, as well as an accomplished turkey caller, hunter and writer.