status of Wild Turkey in eBird for Maine

[Louis Bevier]

The maps in eBird are relied upon by many to see the distribution of species, and those maps show what is the native range versus areas where a species has been introduced or regularly escaped or released, Ring-necked Pheasants and Northern Bobwhites being example of such releases. The Wild Turkey's former native range included a limited portion of southern Maine before it was extirpated in the early to mid 1800s. To reflect that former native range versus where recent introductions have expanded and flourished in Maine, the eBird maps were recently updated. For a time, the non-native range was erroneously coded as "escapee" status when it should have been "naturalized" and established. That should be rectified soon.

Kyle Lima and I described this issue in recent post to the Maine eBird page:
https://ebird.org/region/US-ME/post/change-to-wild-turkey-status-in-maine

Louis Bevier
Fairfield