Weird question (or maybe not so weird)- how close are peacocks to turkeys? I was doom-scrolling a couple of rescue turkey places and I swear they make the same happy or concerned or angry sounds a peacock makes, plus they have very similar feet and shape. Are turkeys just the non-fancy peacock? AND can you cross-breed turkeys with peacocks?
They’re both pheasants but they’re not, like, super close, actually. Theoretically they may be ABLE to crossbreed but I haven’t actually ever seen proof of it happening and no one else I’ve talked to has seen it happen within 1 degree.
That being said, they’re both fowl (true fowl, on the land), both phasianidae, and shaped very similar especially as babies, so it’s not surprising that they make similar noises. But, having raised both, I can assure you the sound sets are actually quite different and some of the sounds that may sound close may have opposite meanings (for example, a turkey’s PIK PIK PIK noise is usually an excited “found food!” noise where as the peafowl’s similar noise basically means “HATE THIS”)