What are some charactoristics that one should look for when scouting and looking for good roosting places. Obviously I don' t want to stir or bump the birds, so I would like to recognize what might comprise a proper roosting area for the birds. For instance, do they need a lot of room to fly down in the mornings? Do they like to roost in areas that are thick or sparsly populated with trees? Any help would be appreciated.

I assume you' re looking for Easterns.

What I' ve seen is feathers on the ground and droppings under the tree(s). In timbered hill country the roosts seem to be in trees just over the edge of the ridgetop, down out of the wind, and usually not real deep in the woods. I also think that most of the roost trees I' ve identified had good stout vertical branches for the turkeys to use.

As far as landing zones, what I have found for roosts is that there is a place where the turkeys can fly down to a clearing, but it doesn' t have to be a big clearing.

To me, the real key is those droppings, and secondarily feathers. You can literally pick out the branch where they were sitting the night before with a good pile of poop down below it.

I meant horizontal branches, not vertical. My bad.