The 20 Best Photos You'll Ever See of the Wild Turkey Breeding Season

1 | Winter Turkeys

As winter wanes, hen and gobbler flocks are together.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

2 | Jake Flocks

Jake “gangs” battle for dominance within their ranks.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

Bonus Read: When You Should Shoot a Jake 

3 | Strutting Jakes

Jakes are enthusiastic strutters, instinctively preparing for their future move up in the hierarchy.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

4 | Gobbler Fights

Serious gobbler fights can be brutal, noisy affairs of blood-letting spur jabs and wing flogging.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

5 | Locked Beaks

Gobblers often lock beaks in a breast-to-breast shoving match in an effort to upend their rival.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

6 | Vanquished Toms

Vanquished toms, or “lieutenants,” may accompany the dominant gobbler throughout the breeding season.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

7 | Hen Flocks

Hen flocks battle to establish a boss hen, the spring turkey hunter’s nemesis.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

8 | Hen Fights

Hen fights within a spring flock trigger a loud and raucous chorus of wing flapping, fighting purrs, cutts, clucks and excited gobbles.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

9 | Sound Off

Gobblers sound off after fly-down signaling the hens to their position.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

10 | Dominant Hen

The dominant hen leads the flock. Calling gobblers away from their hens is the supreme test for a turkey hunter.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

11 | Loafing

Turkeys spend a lot of time loafing, preening and dusting between feeding periods.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

12 | The Enemy

The hen is the turkey hunter’s enemy. Patience and perseverance often pays off during the egg-laying and incubating period when gobblers are alone.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

13 | Losing Hens

A lone dominant gobbler may lose his hen flock to an aggressive jake group.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

14 | Eager Jakes

Jakes typically respond eagerly to hen calls, a confidence builder for novice callers.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

15 | Intense Response

A single lifelike hen decoy setup can trigger an intense response from a flock’s dominant hen, helping to draw in a gobbler.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

16 | Breeding

A hen squats to receive the gobbler’s advances prior to breeding.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

17 | A Gobbler Treads

The gobbler treads the hen’s back prior to mating. This may last a few moments to several minutes.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

18 | Turkey Eggs

This clutch of future wild turkeys, and the hen sitting on these eggs, face a precarious time during incubation and several weeks after hatching. Primarily, predators, weather and turkey-habitat management efforts will define success.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

19 | Turkey Poults

Poult-rearing success is a good measure of an effective, year-round wild turkey management plan.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

20 | No Sweeter Sound

Nature offers no sweeter sound to a turkey hunter’s ear than a thunderous gobble announcing a new spring morning.

(Tes Randle Jolly photo)

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Editor's note: This evergreen gallery post was first published March 6, 2018.