This Turkey Tuesday is about jakes and the games they’re playing with spring on the horizon. During fall, jakes leave brood flocks that included mom, sisters, and some unrelated birds, and form their own flocks. These flocks of jakes spend the winter shadowing hen flocks, which is why you’ll often see winter flocks of hens with jakes mingling around with them or within eye shot. If you think about it, if you’re a young bird now attempting to making a go of life on your own, it makes sense to pay attention to what the adults are doing – as this will allow you to identify areas with abundant food and security. But while these jakes are learning from shadowing hen flocks, they’re also fighting amongst themselves – pushing and shoving are common – boys will be boys, right? The reason is simple – dominance matters, and some of these jakes will end up together in breeding flocks when they’re adults. So, establishing dominance as a juvenile can transcend until you’re an adult. And because dominance hierarchies are quite rigid and persist through time, it makes sense for jakes to take every opportunity to establish dominance over other flock members. The take home is the strife you see in winter flocks of jakes is to assert dominance that will continue to impact their lives as they become breeders in subsequent springs. Anyone lucky enough to be seeing flocks of jakes?
Pic © Tes Randle Jolly
