Australian Brush-turkey (Alectura lathami) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Omnivorous

(Elliott and Kirwan 2017)

• Diet is poorly known
  • No quantitative studies
• May prefer plant-based foods

Plants

(Jones et al. 1995; Elliott and Kirwan 2017)

• Seeds
• Fruits
• Berries
• Grains
• Shoots and roots

Animals

• Frogs (Jones et al. 1995; Elliott and Kirwan 2017)
• Snails (in managed care) (Coles 1937; Elliott and Kirwan 2017)
• Worms (Elliott and Kirwan 2017)
• Insects and insect larvae (Jones et al. 1995; Elliott and Kirwan 2017)
• Carrion (Marchant and Higgins 1993; Elliott and Kirwan 2017)

Age-related changes in diet

• Young feed on invertebrates before beginning to eat seeds (Elliott and Kirwan 2017)
• Young feed on small invertebrates, fruits, seeds, and berries (Jones et al. 1995)
• Adults feed on large fruits, insects, snails, small snakes, frogs, and mice (Jones et al. 1995)

Finding food

(Elliott and Kirwan 2017)

• Scratch in leaf litter
• Dig for roots
• Break open rotting wood for insects (e.g., termites)
• Foraging groups have been observed at landfills

Identification of appropriate food

• Young Brush-turkeys learn what to eat through trial and error (Göth and Proctor 2002)

A Brush-turkey investigates a coconut.

The diet of Brush-turkeys is poorly known. They eat variety of plants and animals.

Image credit: © Graham Winterflood via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareALike License 2.0.