How to tell the age of a turkey

[BuffetSlayer]

How do you tell the age of turkey. I couldnt find it on the forum. The DNR sign out sheets usually ask for this info.

[GobbleNut]

Wildlife managers asking for information about the age of a gobbler are generally trying to find out the percentage of one-year-old birds as compared to older gobblers...and that information can provide some level of reliable correlation regarding reproductive success in the preceding year. A high percentage of jakes (those one-year-olds) most likely means that there was good reproductive success...which is what managers want to see.

Conversely, a continuing lack of jakes seen in harvest data (assuming they are legal to take) is an indicator that reproductive success in a population is a problem that needs to be evaluated and addressed. 

Now, to your question, jakes are very easy to tell, mainly based on the two most obvious factors,...the four center tail feathers being distinctly longer than the others, and the spurs being "nubs" less than a half inch long rather than those of the typical older gobbler which will generally have spurs in the 5/8"-3/4" range or longer.  Jakes also usually have much shorter beards than older gobblers, but that is not as reliable an indicator than those other two factors.  Another indicator is the variation in barring and feather length on the wings, but for most hunters, the tail feathers and spurs are the easiest to tell. 

I think most experienced hunters can make a good, educated guess about two-year old gobblers (and maybe even three-year-olds) from the areas they hunt and are familiar with.  Two-year-old birds generally have distinctly rounded spurs rather than somewhat sharp "points" on them. However, spur development as an age indicator can vary due to natural subspecies variation and regional genetics, as well as habitat factors that might result in "wear and tear" on spurs.

There is always a lot of discussion among hunters about telling the age of older gobblers by looking at the beards and spurs and evaluating their age by those.  Beard length is generally irrelevant to age determination in gobblers, although two-year-olds may exhibit a variation in the coloration of the tips of their beards. As for spurs, guessing a gobbler's age once they reach four years old is pretty much a crapshoot.  Genetics just play too big a role at that point to really make an accurate guess, although we hunters tend to believe that a gobbler with long, sharp, curved spurs is an ancient old warrior...and if we are fortunate enough to harvest one of them, we must have been quite the exceptional hunter to have done so...either that, or very, very lucky...   

[eggshell]

Gobblenut explained it very well and those parameters are pretty reliable. I will vary from his explanation just a little. During my career I ran a turkey check station for 30 years and biologist tagged birds in our harvest area. Many of those tagged were young birds of known age. What we saw was the probability of accurately estimating a gobblers age beyond two years was very difficult. We saw birds tagged as jakes as old as 4 that still only had rounded 3/4 spurs and 3 year olds that had longer sharp spurs. My opinion is that beyond two, maybe three, guessing age is unreliable. That is why most agencies are only asking for adult or juvenile determination. I personally have followed birds that inhabit the same habitat and follow the same patterns for up to 5-7 years and I assume they are the same birds. I have killed some of them and even at what I assume an old age their spurs and beards vary greatly. I think once beyond two years old it's all genetic. One of those studies I spoke of found that ~70 of gobblers were dead before 4 YO and most of those were harvested by hunters. The max age for a gobbler seems to be around 6-7 years and hens up to 10.

[Marc]

Both good answers above.

My impression...  Jake is most identifiable (for most of us) by uneven tail feathers as GobbleNut mentions.  And for me, unless the bird is banded, after 2 it is a crap shoot.

Spurs break off, and beards can be worn down (consider terrain).  I have killed a number of long-beards with one longer pointed spur and one short nubby spur...

I have heard hunters say that they would not kill a bird that was less than 3 years old, or that they will not shoot a 2 year old...   I have no idea how I or anyone else would make this distinction in the field???  Me, hunting mostly tall grass, if a bird has a full fan and a long beard, it is unlikely I will pass a good shot...  Especially if he played the game with me.

[Turkeyman]

Spurs many times can be very difficult to see. If he doesn't fan out you can't judge by tail feathers. Beard length is variable as well, as is body size. In these instances I've found the best thing to do is check his covert wing feathers (speculum?). With a mature bird the coverts are a nicely rounded semi-circle, immature birds jagged and uneven. Check out some pictures of both.

[ChesterCopperpot]

There are jakes and there are adult birds. Outside of that, anyone who says they can age a turkey with any certainty knows something that the leading biologists who've spent their lives looking at morphological differences does not.


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[Uncle Tom]

I have observed turkeys for many years and have come to the conclusion that each season as I watch them in March where I hunt.....they are gathered with the hens in fields and most times you can see a difference in size of the gobblers. Just in the last few days, a big flock in a field has like 8 gobblers strutting for the ladies and there is a couple of them that is noticeably larger in body size....longer, thicker beards. They also seem to be more dominate over the other gobblers, although the smaller birds also seem to be grown birds....full length tail feathers and long beards. But the beards are not as thick, are not as heavy looking, and kinda "stand back" and let the larger birds do most of the strutting. Now, when you pay close attention to these birds as you hunt them, you can tell a difference from the big ones from the smaller ones as they coming to the call....as they get close enough to you. An old, large bird will stand out and most times if you wait and only shoot the larger birds you will see what I am talking about. He will be a limb hanger.....long spurs, full fan. bigger heads, much heavier, rounder wing feathers, and on and on. You will not be disappointed when you pick him up. They all are a shooter when they are grown, but the larger birds never disappoint....they are the smarter ones too....another subject for another day.