Utah residents love — and protect — this bird celebrity: Rosie the Rose Park turkey

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On a chilly November morning in a quiet neighborhood north of Salt Lake City, the sun is rising.

The only noise comes from cars heating up on driveways, visible condensation billowing from their exhaust pipes as the valley wakes up. Neighborhood cats stand watch at their porches and stare down the occasional dog walker.

Then, a rooster screeches, and a chorus of gobbles send the felines into hiding, while cars and people rush up to the scene.

In this neighborhood, turkeys are its most beloved residents. And one is the most famous of all: Rosie the Rose Park turkey.

Rosie the Rose Park turkey

The communities of Rose Park and Fairpark share custody of Rosie, a female turkey, or hen. She recently had six babies, or poults, that likely hatched in late June or early July.

Rosie’s name came from an April 2019 poll in the Facebook group “Rose Park Communities,” which includes Rose Park, Fairpark, West Pointe and Jordan Meadows. The name handily beat out all other suggestions.

Residents often post their Rosie sightings to the Facebook group — whether it’s images of Rosie “soliciting” on a neighbor’s front porch, or her and her brood hanging out in a backyard. Posts of the poultry go back to April 2017, and since then, she’s become a mainstay — and celebrity — in the area.

Joyce Morgan, who has lived in Rose Park for 45 years, said this is the only time she’s seen wild turkeys live in an established, urban neighborhood so close to the city, making the three males who were in the area Nov. 18 an even rarer sight.

The community never found out who fathered Rosie’s six children — determining she’s a single mom, which is how wild females usually raise their young, according to Heather Talley, upland game coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

“We all have really gotten attached to her... and now her babies,” Morgan said. “It’s like something fun, and happy, and kind of joyful.”

Turkeys like Rosie usually settle in urban areas during winters with heavy snow, seeking refuge at lower elevations to find food — but this past winter was exceptionally mild, Talley said, and the wildlife division and didn’t spot many of what they label as “nuisance turkeys” in Salt Lake Valley neighborhoods.

Between 25,000 to 35,000 wild turkeys live across Utah, after they were reintroduced in the 1950s, according to the wildlife division. Prior to their reintroduction, established turkey populations hadn’t been seen in the state for about 100 years or more.

“We definitely deal with [nuisance turkeys] every year,” Talley said. “We have had fall hunts every year since 2014, because we do have experienced nuisance and depredation issues with turkeys every year, but the extent to which that nuisance is just depends on the area.”

A beloved bird

Angela Morgan, another resident of Rose Park, said in a Facebook message that people often use the community group to check up on Rosie, keeping track of recent sightings so they can make sure she’s OK. She also warned Rose Park residents are very protective of their unofficial mascot, who is rumored to pass on good luck with each visit.

“I’d venture to guess if any of us saw someone harassing her they would quickly be cast out of the community into the depths of hell or even worse, Daybreak,” she wrote.

Although a cute addition to the community, the bird can get into mischief. Joyce Morgan remembers a time where Rosie enjoyed taunting a neighbor’s German shepherd — running up to its fence with her plumage fluffed, riling him up knowing full well the dog couldn’t breach the barrier.

“You can’t, you know, hand-feed them or anything like that, but they’re not afraid of you,” Joyce Morgan said. “They like cat food, and we feed feral cats.”

One day, she spotted a group eating her cat food, and she tried to shoo them off. “And they were just like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re gonna listen to you,’ just kind of walking very nonchalantly away from me,” she said.

Alicia Ramirez has lived in Rose Park for 25 years, and does landscaping for various area residents. Ramirez said during her work, she sees Rosie and her babies a lot, and that the bird and her brood are always together.

“She visits everybody,” Ramirez said. “Who I work for right now… when she told me what to do, you know, to clean up her yard, she’s like, ‘Just excuse the mess because Rosie and her babies always come and visit my yard, they like my yard so much… but it’s really nice to have them come visit.’”

Some other neighborhoods may have their own Rosies, but the wildlife helps with relocation in areas where the birds aren’t so beloved. Fall hunts are one way of keeping down nuisance populations, but the main method is trapping and relocating.

“If people are feeding turkeys, even if it’s something that’s safe for them to eat, it does create an artificial congregation of wildlife in one area, and so the prevalence of disease increases exponentially,” Talley said, noting that while some people may love them, others may not.

Some turkeys that the wildlife division relocates leave with a parting gift: GPS backpacks, which help officials determine where the birds settle after leaving nuisance areas.

As for Rosie, the wildlife division won’t “go around stealing turkeys from people” unless someone calls and complains about her, Talley said, or unless there’s a safety hazard. Turkeys also are considered protected wildlife, so anyone wanting to harvest them must have a permit and hunting license, while also following wildlife division regulations and season guidance.

As long as Rosie and her brood aren’t bothering anyone, they are likely there to stay.

“It’s a lovely place to live,” Joyce Morgan said of Rose Park. “And it’s really fun and exciting that we have things like wild turkeys that most people don’t get to see.”