Cool tail feathers
Contributors to this thread:Turkey
From: FiveRs
13-Apr-15
Has anyone on here ever seen tail feathers that swirl or curl like this?
I haven't been able to find anyone that has seen anything like this. Only the bird's left half of the fan is swirled, the right half is normal. It is an Eastern Turkey that was taken by a first time turkey hunter that I took out on our local learn to turkey hunt program. It was a 22.6lb Tom with a 9 1/2" beard and 15/16" & 7/8" spurs, a very, very nice bird for our area.
From: trkyslr
13-Apr-15
Fivers, was this noticed rt after the kill or later after a truck ride? Looks like maybe that fan half was resting on the truck, which I have seen and done a lot. If it's the way the feathers were when he was alive it's pretty neat discovery. Any pics of bird rt after kill with fan displayed out? Congrats to the hunter!
Another thing is when in Roost he may have had that fan half pushed/rested on the limb he was laying on or something.... Just a thought
From: wkochevar
13-Apr-15
Aren't those tips pretty light for an eastern as well?
From: writer
13-Apr-15
"....light for an eastern..."
No
Agree with Chris...or it's a greenhead/jellyhead hybrid.
From: Ole Coyote
14-Apr-15
I see this all the time! Are you trying to straighten the out ?
From: FiveRs
14-Apr-15
I really didn't look at it much at the time of the kill, we were right at the deadline for a change in registration for our learn to hunt and I was more worried about where we had to take the bird to register it for the hunt. I took 2 pictures with my phone but it isn't clear enough to see the feathers very good, you can see some "wave" to that side that looks different from the other side, but the front of the fan wasn't as noticeable as the back. It was in the truck for a while, but I'm pretty sure it was out of the wind where I had it tucked by a dog box and had some other stuff from the hunt over it. I'm not sure if she will try to straighten them, she was drawn to win one of the free donated fan mounts by a local taxidermist.
It is an eastern, that is all we have in northcentral Wisconsin.
From: Ole Coyote
14-Apr-15
EAsy way to get those feathers to lay flat and in a natural way without damage is to use a small hand held steamer . The steam will straighten them quickly without any damage I do it almost eveyday with fly tying feathers and especially turkey tail feathers making vanes. PM me of anybody has any questions.
