Why is roosting a turkey important? Let’s set the scene: You’ve carefully watched a group of longbeards all spring. Anxiously awaiting opening day, you’ve decided to hunt opening morning before work to get a jump on hunting these birds before the neighbors start hunting over the weekend. Unfortunately, this bunch of birds didn’t walk past any of your trail cameras, nor did you glass them in their favorite winter wheat field the night before. Now what? Where do you start in the morning? 

When faced with this situation, knowing where your local birds like to roost and then trying to get them to “shock gobble” off the roost, under the cover of darkness, can be a make-or-break scenario for a turkey hunter. By locating the roost before daylight, you can set up in the right area and prepare for the morning to unfold. 

The more you know about roosting turkeys, the more turkeys you’ll wrap your tag around. Let’s dive in.

Where Do Turkeys Roost?

Turkeys always roost in trees. They prefer good-sized trees with numerous limbs branching out for stability and safety in bad weather. Think oaks and pines. 

Turkeys typically roost close to a feeding source that drew their attention the previous afternoon and evening. This could be a bean field, oak flat, or even a hay field that’s greening up in the springtime weather. As night draws closer, turkeys feed and peck their way toward their roost spot. So, the key is to find the food source and then look at what trees are around. 

What Time Do Turkeys Roost?

Turkeys generally head to roost about an hour before darkness (“grey light” time) and typically fly up into their roost tree right before darkness falls. However, I have seen turkeys fly up sooner than this and have also witnessed them staying on their roost well past daybreak. Predators and other perceived dangers can affect roost timing. A turkey knows it’s safe up in a roost tree, and they certainly use that to their advantage.

Turkeys rarely change their roost tree during the night because they have poor night vision. So, wherever you roosted a gobbler the evening before is likely where you’ll find them come morning.

Speaking of morning, turkeys usually fly down once they can see their surrounding area. They’ll fly into an open area, pecking around and stretching out once they’re off their limb. A lot of toms will strut for a while and gather their hens. These areas “right off the roost” are great ambush spots to be in immediately after fly down.

How To Locate Turkey Roosts

When locating turkey roosts, look for food and good shelter. I’m looking for the hottest food source available at that moment. This could be a bean field that wasn’t picked, a green winter wheat field, or an oak ridge that had late-dropping acorns. Regardless, I’m scouting the food sources first. 

Then, look for good roost trees, which will generally have these features:

• Limbs running parallel to the ground.
• Easy fly-up and pitch-down access from a ridge or high point. 
• Open areas to fly up from and land down in.
• Big sturdy trunks.
• Proximity to food.

Typical areas that tend to hold turkey roosts include:

• Field edges close to feeding sources.
• High points or ridges, especially oak ridges.
• River bottoms or close to ponds (turkeys love to use pond dams to fly up and land on before and after roosting).
• Canyons or draws (these are especially good on windy days so they can get out of high winds overnight).
• Pines (for their great cover). Tip: Use the Hunt App’s “Trees, Crops, and Soil” Map Layers for good leads on where to find roost trees.
• Oak flats and logging road areas (turkeys love logging roads to fly up from and down onto).
• Single large trees in the middle of a field or pasture.

Once I find nearby trees with these features, I want to see turkey sign. Roost trees will have tracks, scat, feathers, dust bowls, and scratching in and near a food source.

Do Turkeys Roost in the Same Spot?

Turkeys will use some spots year after year and flock after flock. These spots are typically close to agriculture fields, oak-covered ridges, or hold some type of terrain feature that isn’t changing anytime soon and turkeys have become accustomed to the area and feel “safe.” I try to mark roost locations that hold value year after year because it’s a great starting location to try to find turkeys every spring. 

There are a handful of factors that will make turkeys move roost trees, including: 

• Crops/available food.
• Predators.
• Hunting pressure.
• Weather (high winds or heavy rain).

Getting the Tom to Gobble on the Roost

The whole point of roosting a turkey is understanding where the tom is likely to be in the morning. To understand his location, we need to make him gobble off his limb. You can do this the night before you hunt or in the morning darkness. 

When making turkey sounds to a roosted bird, start off soft with hen yelps and clucks to sound like a roosted hen nearby. Sometimes being too aggressive this early can scare a tom into not gobbling at all. You may also try locator calls—owl hoots, goose or duck calls, even crow or peacock calls. Anything to “shock” the tom into gobbling and giving away his location.

When I roost a bird in the evening, I head home and study my maps to figure out how I can get into the area under the cover of darkness undetected. I’m making an educated guess on where the tom will fly down and make plans to be in that spot before daylight.

Conversely, if I’m trying to get a morning bird to give away his roost spot, I’ll use a locator call like a crow or owl call to hopefully shock the tom into gobbling. Once I determine where he is roosted I will quickly mark this on my map and then look at the surrounding area to see how close I can get to him and what’s around the area.

Though, be mindful of not getting too close to roosted birds for fear of them seeing you walk in. They will know danger is lurking.

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By finding and locating good roosting areas and trees, a hunter can identify areas of interest to hunt turkeys right off the roost. These are great areas to start your morning off, and hopefully, you’ll end up with a flock of turkeys landing in your lap come sunrise.