Australian Brush-turkey (Alectura lathami) Fact Sheet: Taxonomy & History

Megapodes: an introduction

• Group of birds known as “mound-builders” (Seymour 1991)
• Family Megapodiae
  • From the Greek megas (“large”) and podi (“foot) (Jones and Göth 2008)
    • Refers to the large feet of these birds
      • Use feet to create and tend mound
  • Birds in this group (Elliott and Kirwan 2017):
    • Brush-turkeys (Alectura, Aepypodius, Talegalla)
    • Scrubfowls (Megapodius)
    • Maleo (Macrocephalon maleo)
    • Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata)
  • Many species are endangered (Martins et al. 2013)
• Characteristics
  • Incubation of eggs occurs within a heat-conserving mound (Seymour 1995)
    • Heat originates from decomposing vegetation or external sources (e.g., geothermal)
    • Parents do not sit on the eggs
  • Female lays a series of eggs, one at a time, rather than a clutch (Eiby and Booth 2009)
  • No parental care, except for incubation monitoring (Jones and Göth 2008)
  • Chicks highly independent (Jones and Göth 2008)
    • Well-developed feathers at the time of hatching
• Australian Brush-turkey
  • Largest extant megapode (Elliott and Kirwan 2017)
  • Only megapode species with the following characteristics (Jones and Göth 2008)
    • Brightly colored head and neck wattle
    • Non-monogamous mating system

Taxonomy

• Two subspecies recognized (Elliott and Kirwan 2017)
  • May be separate species
• A. l. robinsoni considered invalid (Elliott and Kirwan 2017)

Nomenclature

• Common name: Brush-turkey
  • Early European biologists noted this bird’s preference for “brush” (i.e., rain forest) habitats
• Genus: Alectura
  • From the Greek alektoris (“cock”), and oupá (“tail”) (Marchant and Higgins 1993)
• Species: A. lathami
  • Named in honor of Dr. John Latham (b. 1740­–d. 1837) (Marchant and Higgins 1993)
    • Made early descriptions of the Australian Brush-turkey in A General History of Birds (1821-1828) (Latham 1821)
      • In Volume 1, Latham called this bird the “New Holland Vulture” (not Brush-turkey) (Jones and Göth 2008)
        • Mistook the bare, red head for that of a vulture
      • In Volume 10, Latham corrected his error (Olsen 2010)
        • Concluded that the bird belonged in a new taxonomic group

Synonyms

• Scientific names
  • Talegallus lathami (Gray 1861)

Common names

(Flieg 1970; Marchant and Higgins 1993; Elliott and Kirwan 2017, except as noted)

• Australian Brush-turkey, Yellow-wattled Brush Turkey, Brush Turkey, Scrub Turkey (English)
  • Historically used common names
    • New Holland Vulture (Latham 1821)
    • Wattled Talegalla (Olsen 2010)
• Talégalle de Latham (French)
• Australbuschhuhn (German)
• Talégalo cabecirrojo (Spanish)

Other colloquial or local names

• Wee-lah (Gray 1861)
• Gweela (Sorenson 1920)

Fossil history and evolutionary relationships

(Shute et al. 2017, and as noted)

• Oldest fossil megapode originated 24-26 mya (Late Oligocene)
  • Genetic evidence suggests that Megapodiidae diverged anywhere from 45-75 mya (Eocene to Late Cretaceous) (Harris et al. 2014; Prum et al. 2015)
• Two groups of living (extant) megapodes:
  • Brush-turkeys
  • Scrubfowl
• Divergence of brush-turkeys and scrubfowl not precisely known, due to a sparse fossil record
  • Wide estimates of 18-25 mya (Oligocene)
• Brush-turkeys originated from Australia–New Guinea
• In the Pliocene-Pleistocene era, some brush-turkeys were burrow nesters instead of mound-builders

Closest known extant relatives

• Likely members of Aepypodius (Birks and Edwards 2002; Elliott and Kirwan 2017; Shute et al. 2017)
  • Based on molecular evidence
  • Share similarities in behavior, brightly colored bare skin, round nostrils, and white eggshell

History

• Key scientific insights
  • 1821: first scientific description of the Australian Brush-turkey (Olsen 2010)
    • Written by John Latham
    • Incubation of eggs via mound was surprising to naturalists in England
    • See Nomenclature, above

Books

• Selected non-fiction
  • Mound-builders — Darryl Jones and Ann Göth (2008)
• Children’s books
  • You Turkeys — Michael Gerard Bauer (2010)
    • Story about the challenges of having a garden while living alongside brush-turkeys
  • Bill the Brush Turkey — Cathy Lonsdale (2008)
    • A brush-turkey makes its home in Cathy’s suburban backyard

Poetry

• “Brush Turkey in the Cold Room” in The Golden Bird: New and Selected Poems — Robert Adamson (2008)

Television and film

• Documentaries
  • The Giant Nest of the Australian Brush-turkey — PlanetDoc (airdate unknown)
  • Chant of the Scrub Turkey (2007)
    • Quirky tale of a Buddhist commune’s conflict with brush-turkeys

Art

• Early illustrations
  • The Brush-turkey, Talegalla lathami — Joseph Matias Wolf (1861) (Olsen 2010)
    • See p. 131 of Olsen (2010)
  • Australian Brush-turkey — John Gould and Elizabeth Gould (1848) (Olsen 2010)
• Contemporary: realistic-abstract style
  • Brush Turkey #3 — Graeme Schreiber
  • Australian Brush Turkey — Mikhael van Aken

Pop Culture

• Nominated for 2017 Australian Bird of the Year by The Guardian (Burns 2017)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves — birds

Order: Galliformes — fowls, gallinaceous birds (e.g., turkeys, grouse, chickens, quails, partridge, pheasant)

Family: Megapodiidae — megapodes (brush turkey, malleefowl, scrubfowl)

Genus: Alectura (Latham, 1824)

Species: Alectura lathami (J.E. Gray, 1831) — Australian Brush-turkey

Subspecies: Alectura lathami lathami (J.E. Gray, 1831) — Yellow-wattled Brush-turkey, Yellow-pouched Brush-turkey
Subspecies: Alectura lathami purpureicollis (Le Souref, 1898) — Purple-wattled Brush-turkey, Purple-pouched Brush-turkey
 

Sources: Elliott and Kirman (2017); Integrated Taxonomic Information System (2017); Darryl Jones, personal communication, 2018

An 1875 illustration of the Australian Brush-turkey.

From p. 294 of Cassell's Book of Birds (1875).

Image credit: Scanned by Internet Archive Book Images (Flickr). No known copyright restrictions.

This photograph, circa 1899, shows the size relationship between a boy and a Brush-turkey mound.

From p. 7 of Bird Lore, published by the National Audubon Society (1899).

Image credit: Made available by Internet Archive Book Images (Flickr). No known copyright restrictions.