White turkeys today
Contributors to this thread:Turkey
From: bud
29-Apr-16
Wife took this picture this morning before work. Never saw these white turkeys before today. Have a lot of turkey come thru. Probably hard to see with the snow we had in the Bighorns this week.
From: drycreek
29-Apr-16
A few years ago a flock of turkeys showed up at my FIL's farm in ND. It had some white birds in it. Interesting.
From: Alexis Desjardins
29-Apr-16
That's neat seeing them white turkeys the are wild I assume nice.
From: bud
30-Apr-16
Yes, they are wild Merriams. Wish I had been home to see them.
From: scentman
30-Apr-16
They're just wearing winter camo.
From: snapcrackpop
30-Apr-16
snapcrackpop's Link
Looks like the domestic Royal Palm turkey Instead of a wild white or smokey-grey turkey.
From: Lucas
30-Apr-16
The domestic birds in the pictures posted in your link had lots of black in the breast, the ones above don't seem to have much?
From: drycreek
30-Apr-16
Double fat fingered post !
From: bud
30-Apr-16
MAYBE THEY ARE ESCAPEES FROM A TURKEY RANCH THAT JOINED UP WITH ROUGE MERRIAMS. LOL. I REALLY DONT KNOW. KIND OF SHOCKED MY WIFE TO LOOK OUT THE WINDOW AND SEE THEM. ALL THE TURKEYS WEVE SEEN UP HERE LOOK LIKE THESE. WIFE AND DAUGHTER.
From: bud
30-Apr-16
From: MDW
01-May-16
From what I've been told, the white gene is naturally occurring in wild turkeys and just pops out sometimes. Reason for not seeing it very often, is that it makes them easier targets for predators.
Some years back, I hunted a flock that had two birds with white wings. Think they didn't stand out! Never could get one of them though.
From: stick n string
01-May-16
Agree with them looking like a royal palm. Not sure if u have anyone close that has some turkeys that may have had them? Killed a smoke phase jake in 2010, was white looking, but had a tinge of grey tone to it. But who knows. Beautiful birds for sure. I live in eastern turkey country but have always been so jealous of you fellas in the west and ur merriams. Hoping someday i will get a chance to cone west....
From: Zbone
02-May-16
Neat looking birds, thanks for sharing... They look wild to me with those skinny legs... Domestic birds have much thicker legs and feet and without DNA testing, a poor mans way to determine wild or domestic...8^)
From: Brotsky
02-May-16
They almost look like giant Ptarmigan. Maybe they're Pturkeys? Very cool picture!
From: Zbone
03-May-16
Think about it, all domestic turkeys originally came from wild birds eons ago through selective breeding... So those pure white colored domestic turkey farm Butterball's genes had to originally come from the wild...
Color phases in some wildlife may be rare in some species, whereas not so uncommon as in other species... Grey squirrels, red foxes, and Gyrfalcons come quickly to mind as those not so uncommon to be colored anywhere from pure white to jet black and all shades in between...
