How Big is a Turkey?

People often wonder how big is a turkey especially if the task of preparing Thanksgiving dinner falls on their shoulders. Many folks will recall cutting up this huge bird over the dinner table during the holidays. The fact is that it is really the prominent part of the menu, and even some kind of a staple in most homes, when the holiday feasts arrive.

Turkey Characteristics

Take note that there is a bit of a difference between the turkey you serve on the table and wild turkeys. The domesticated turkeys we serve are actually a descendant of wild turkeys. However, for ordinary folks there seems to be not much of a difference when comparing the two variants.

One of the prominent features we see in these birds is the fleshy wattle that we see which usually hangs right under their beaks. It actually protrudes from the top of the beak in some instances. Wingspans often range from 1.5 to 1.8 meters thus making them part of the largest birds in the open forest. Females are called hens while male turkeys are called toms or gobblers. As you might expect, the hens are usually smaller than the gobblers.

Biggest Turkey

If you're preparing the Thanksgiving dinner, you might want to know the different turkey sizes out there. Here are the average turkey sizes. Well, the adult male turkey will weigh approximately five to 11 kilograms or 11 to 24 pounds. A female turkey on the other hand will weigh from 6.6 lbs on average even up to 12 lbs or three kilos to 5.4 kilos. Of course, you will occasionally find bigger sized turkeys in the store.

Going beyond the average turkey sizes, you might be wondering what the biggest turkey is out there, well you might just find yourself smiling for a treat. The best place to check will be the Guinness Book of World Records. The biggest turkey ever recorded was weighed on December 12, 1989 in the United Kingdom. It weighed 39.09 kilograms or a total of 86 pounds. You can say that it was about the size of dog.

Turkey Tips

Now going back to your Thanksgiving dinner, one of the questions that usually pop up every now and then is how much turkey should one serve for dinner. You'll get a lot of tips if you look it up online but one good estimate that you'll hear more often is that you can prepare around a couple of pounds of turkey for every person you're expecting at the dinner table.

Now, of course, you don't want to run out of turkey to serve in case you have other guests at the table. So, you can simply use this estimate and add a little extra just in case somebody gets really hungry for more turkey. Turkey sizes are the usual concern during the holidays. The information and the bit of trivia here will at least give you an idea of how much turkey to serve come dinner time.