CRITTERS OF NORTH IDAHO: Wild Turkey

On Jan. 26, 1784, Benjamin Franklin described in a letter to his daughter the bird he championed as the perfect national bird for the newfounded United States: the bald eagle? Nope, Franklin argued that the role of national bird should have actually gone to the wild turkey. While he never publicly voiced his opinion, Franklin’s reasoning for this was that the bald eagle is “a bird of bad moral character. He does not earn his living honestly … too lazy to fish for himself.