I just got off the phone with a buddy of mine. He said he had just came from the taxidermist thats mountin our birds from last year and he said that my bird has a red cast or phase as the taxidermist called it, the taxi went on to say these are a rare color in easterns and he might do 2 a year(he mounts turkeys from all over the U.S.) My buddy said its the best lookin bird he has ever seen!! He said it has the most awesome red cast in the tail feathers you'll ever see! I havent seen it yet, its still drying or not done yet or what ever they do. Anyone hear of this or is this just another everyday color of the birds? I thought it had a really nice green cast the day I got it but not red LOL. What do you guys think?
Yepp this color "buff" (as it's called) is a normal thing and its seen on occasion. I've read and researched it a lot and apparently it comes from when turkeys inbreed. Like a Hen mating with her son or gobbler mating with his daughter or even on farther down the line than that. The "buff" can range from bronze, red, gray, etc. My cousin actually killed one that was white a couple years back and thats when I started to research it. Hopefully some more guys will post up some pics because I love seeing pics of these birds!!
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Here's a hen. I don't know what you call this? A piebald.
TURKEYSLAYER 101
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii297/buckslayer101/whitehen.jpg)
beautiful hen
Quote from: bowhunter84 on April 05, 2011, 09:06:40 PM
beautiful hen
Yea I haven't killed a hen in the fall since I was young but she sure would look pretty flying out my wall!
TURKEYSLAYER 101
Quote from: TURKEYSLAYER101 on April 05, 2011, 08:58:57 PM
Here's a hen. I don't know what you call this? A piebald.
TURKEYSLAYER 101
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii297/buckslayer101/whitehen.jpg)
Smoky Grey.
Here is a red/ornage phase from AR. The guy that killed this one killed another one very similar in the same area a couple years later. You can see the red/orange feather shafts if you look closely at the wings. The bottom of the feet were the same, instead of black they were orange.
(http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/6236/img0013zc.jpg)
This is the only pic I have of a red phase big gobbler I killed several years ago. All 4 of these turkeys are Rios.
TRKYHTR
(http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff214/trkyhtr/redgobbler.jpg)
Beautiful birds!
Quote from: TURKEYSLAYER101 on April 05, 2011, 08:58:57 PM
Here's a hen. I don't know what you call this? A piebald.
TURKEYSLAYER 101
(http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii297/buckslayer101/whitehen.jpg)
People around here call these silver hens. I don't know if that's what everyone else calls them though. Whatever they are called they are beautiful. I would love to have a mount of one.
Like the one in reply #6 above, here is one with a red/orange phase; got it in AL this past Saturday. Notice how the body feathers has banding / striping like the tail feathers.
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