Turkey Behavior & Hunting Strategies – Illinois Learn to Hunt

Wild Turkey Seasonal Ecology & Behavior

Wild turkey behavior varies depending on the season, as well as by age and sex. For Illinois hunters, spring and fall are the key seasons. In spring, nearly all behavior centers on courtship and breeding. In the fall, turkeys regroup into larger flocks.

Understanding how food sources, habitat preferences, vocalizations, and flock dynamics — and adjusting strategies accordingly — will help you find and successfully harvest a bird. If you understand what the bird wants, needs, and how it behaves at different times of year, you will become a much more effective hunter.

Courtship & Breeding

Courtship and breeding occur in spring, when increasing daylight triggers hormonal changes. Males gobble to attract hens — remember, gobblers aim to breed with as many hens as possible, which drives their behavior. In spring hunting, we use hen vocalizations to draw gobblers toward us, which is the opposite of how natural courtship unfolds.

Once hens move in, gobblers usually become quiet and begin strutting, spreading their tail feathers, puffing up, displaying their beards, and showing color changes in their heads and snoods. They also drum and spit, with the occasional quiet gobble.

If a hen accepts the gobbler’s advances, she will lie down and present herself to be bred.

Nesting, Egg-Laying, & Poult-Rearing

Hens become secretive and search for nest sites in moderately dense understory. Nests are shallow depressions scratched into the dirt.

Hens lay 10–12 eggs over a period of about two weeks.
Eggs hatch after 26–28 days.
Hens reposition their eggs often and leave only to feed.
Hens will renest if disturbed early in the laying or incubation process; 10–40% of nests successfully hatch.

Pout development:

Follow hens within 12 hours
Dust within a week
Flying short distances within two weeks
Roost in low trees by week three
Those that survive six weeks have a significantly higher chance of reaching adulthood (NWTF).

Other Notable Characteristics

Diurnal (active during the day)
Excellent eyesight (color and movement)
Roost in trees at night
Forage on the ground
Take dust baths to maintain feathers

Turkey Hunting in Spring

Turkey Behavior in Spring

The spring breeding season runs from March to June (generally late March to April in Illinois).

Toms split up for breeding; small groups of hens remain nearby.
Turkeys spend much of their time in fields and open woods with low-growing grasses and weedy, insect-rich vegetation.
Gobblers call (gobble) to attract hens; hunters imitate hens to attract gobblers
Once hens approach, gobblers switch to strutting, spitting, drumming, showing off beards, dragging wing tips, etc.

Hunting Near a Roost

Locate a roost the evening before.
Set up early the next morning along a feeding area, field edge, or a likely travel route.
Use a hen decoy with a jake decoy and give hen calls.
Toms that see a jake with a receptive hen may come in quickly or may hang up out of range.

Vocalizations (Calling)

There are several types of turkey vocalizations, depending on the time of year, age, sex, and purpose. Below is a chart that explains the most common sounds, who makes them, their meaning, and how hunters can use them effectively.

For audio examples, visit The Sounds of the Wild Turkey.

Spring Strategy: Hunting Near a Roost

Decoy Spreads

Approaches range from using no decoys to a variety of spreads (lone hen, feeding spread, walking harem, fighting spread, breeding spread) with different requirements, goals, and aggressiveness levels. Below is a chart that summarizes strategies and important considerations.

Decoy Diagrams

Diagrams illustrate how spreads should appear from above and from the side, along with notes on utilizing terrain and scouting intel to position yourself most effectively. Remember: in spring, you are imitating a hen to draw a gobbler to you, which is the opposite of natural courtship.

Hunting Turkey in Fall

Turkey Behavior in Fall

In the fall, turkeys focus on feeding and caring for their young. As the insect and seed populations decline, birds shift to consuming hard and soft mast (i.e., nuts, acorns, and fruits) in mature forests, leading to home-range shifts of several miles.

Toms and jakes tend to group together, while hens form separate flocks.

Ambush Feeding Areas Strategy

Set up within feeding areas and use tom or hen calls. Sitting silently in a high-potential area can also pay off (similar to deer hunting). Turkey hunting requires patience.

“Bust-and-Call” Strategy

This method intentionally scatters a flock, then uses calls to reassemble it. In the fall, turkeys rely on their flock structure, making them eager to regroup after a “bust.”

Steps:

Locate a flock by scouting fields, ridges, or mast-heavy areas (oak stands).
Scatter the flock by moving in quickly or making noise.
Set up where the largest portion of the flock ran.
Use assembly yelps, kee-kee calls, or lost hen calls to draw birds back.

This strategy is most effective in the morning or early afternoon when birds are actively foraging.

Opportunism Strategy

If you carry both a turkey permit and a deer permit for the same site, you may encounter either species first — increasing your chance of bringing home one or the other.