[1] Fossil evidence indicates that the Californian turkey was stockier than the wild turkey of the eastern United States, with a shorter, wider beak, but was largely similar otherwise.

[3] The extinction of this species is thought to have been caused by a combination of drought, which would have forced turkeys to restrict their lives to areas close to water sources, and overhunting by humans who had arrived relatively recently in the region.

[2]: 52 This species was originally described as a type of peafowl by Miller in 1909 and placed in the genus Pavo with that bird.

[2]: 3 "The unquestionable geographic range of M. californica extended from Orange County in the south (Imperial Highway), through Los Angeles County (Rancho La Brea and probably also Workman and Alhambra Streets), to Santa Barbara County in the north (Carpinteria).

[4] The xeric desert topography that prevails now in southeastern California and western Arizona may have prevented its neighbor, the wild turkey, from exchanging genes with one another.