Scrub turkeys go suburban

SYDNEY - Most Australians would be delighted to encounter a native brush turkey while strolling through the rainforest.

They are less pleased to find the large, colourful birds in their back gardens, raking up flowerbeds for worms and stealing mulch for their nests.

Ornithologists say the birds, also known as scrub turkeys, are invading urban areas. Already in Sydney's northern suburbs, they are migrating south.

"I expect they could be in the Botanical Gardens [in central Sydney] soon," Alan Morris of Birding NSW said yesterday. "They've got quite canny about living with humans."

The turkeys were once found along much of Australia's eastern seaboard. But they were wiped out in many areas, and, until three or four years ago, were never seen south of the Hawkesbury River, which flows just north of Sydney.

Now they are often spotted in the suburbs, where they wreak havoc in gardens and gobble up food left out for pets.

Morris said since there used to be rainforest on the north shore, they could be claiming back territory they once occupied.

But there have also been sightings further south - as far as Merimbula, 600km south of Sydney.

It is not clear whether the turkeys hitched a lift to these far-flung spots, where they never had a habitat, or travelled there under their own steam.

What is certain is they spell disaster for gardens. They build 2m-high mounds in which to incubate their eggs, piling up leaf litter and compost.

Morris said: "If you grow azaleas, say, and you mulch them, they will just come and remove the mulch every day. Sydney doesn't know what it's in for."