Zelda is a female wild turkey

Wild Turkey

The Wild Turkey is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which derives from the South Mexican subspecies of wild turkey .Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green...

 that has lived in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

's Battery Park

Battery Park

Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...

 since mid-2003. It is presumed that she entered Manhattan's north end from the Bronx and then journeyed south (downtown), as during spring 2003 there were several turkey sightings in Manhattan at points progressively further south, all prior to Zelda's taking up residence in the park.

She has occasionally wandered from the park. In 2004 she was seen in Tribeca

TriBeCa

Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...

 before being captured and returned to Battery Park. In 2007 a turkey, presumably Zelda, was spotted in Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

 and Tribeca.

Zelda is named after Zelda Fitzgerald

Zelda Fitzgerald

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald , born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama, was an American novelist and the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. She was an icon of the 1920s—dubbed by her husband "the first American Flapper"...

 (the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...

), because (according to legend) during one of Zelda Fitzgerald's nervous breakdown

Nervous breakdown

Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...

s, she went missing and was found in Battery Park, apparently having walked several miles downtown.

External links

• 2009-06-25 NY Times article (scroll down for the question about Zelda
• 2008-11-00 Chicago Tribune article
• Photo of Zelda on the 28th floor fire escape of an apartment building
• Photos of Zelda
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1524496
• "Turkey in the Battery" (Downtown Express) (scroll down to see article)
• "A Kinder, Gentler way to Stuff a Turkey" (New York Times)
• "http://www.flickr.com/photos/22025434@N06/3960411457/" (Flickr)
• NY Daily News article, November 23, 2009