Which is the more aggressive or dominant head color - white or red??

[drenalinld]

I think a strutting gobbler with a totally white head and wattles it the most aggressive/dominant as perceived by other turkeys. What do you guys think? Am I way off base?

The reason I ask this question is I have a full strut decoy from Ol' Tom and the head and wattles are almost pure white. I have had many, many three year old and older gobblers shy away from it. I am thinking of putting some red paint on it thinking it might be less intimidating?

[gobbler74]

I was with a fairly aggressive redhead once upon a time. Them were the good ole days. Haven't had a crack at any white heads yet, guess its just a matter of time.

[Cove]

I was with a fairly aggressive redhead once upon a time. Them were the good ole days. Haven't had a crack at any white heads yet, guess its just a matter of time.

[TRKYHTR]

Depends on what you mean by dominance. A turkeys head will change color per his mood. It's been my experience that a gobblers head changes to white when he is getting ready to breed a hen. My Jake, Buddy, his head is red alot whenhe is agressive towards other animals or when he wants to fight but when he is strutting trying to get his hen to lay down for him it gets whiter. Then when he gets on top  of her it almost goes completely white. A dead gobblers head doesn't change colors much. They usually stay close to the color they were when they were shot. With exception to rigamortis(sp) and blood pooling. You will notice when most turkeys are fighting, for dominance, their heads are not white. Thats said if there are several gobblers together usually the one that has the whitest head is the most dominant because he is the one that is going to breed.

TRKYHTR

[drenalinld]

I was with a fairly aggressive redhead once upon a time. Them were the good ole days. Haven't had a crack at any white heads yet, guess its just a matter of time.

You have to watch those redheads.......lol
You'll have to fill us in on the white hairs.

[Hognutz]

I was with a fairly aggressive redhead once upon a time. Them were the good ole days. Haven't had a crack at any white heads yet, guess its just a matter of time.

Those white hairs will come soon enough, Jim. I am in the gray stage now..Mike

[drenalinld]

So by looking at the head of these two toms, which would you say would have been the more dominant bird?  They were shot is separate years but talking about head color these two are different. Both had wear on wing feathers from strutting and both gobbled on roost and ground.

I don't think either tom is aggressive any longer. Any tom can display all colors from extremely white to blood red depending on mood. It can change in seconds. I'm just trying to understand how other toms read these colors. I've had way too many toms shy away from my strutting decoy with an all white head and I wonder if it might work better if I put more red on it?

[drenalinld]

Depends on what you mean by dominance. A turkeys head will change color per his mood. It's been my experience that a gobblers head changes to white when he is getting ready to breed a hen. My Jake, Buddy, his head is red alot whenhe is agressive towards other animals or when he wants to fight but when he is strutting trying to get his hen to lay down for him it gets whiter. Then when he gets on top  of her it almost goes completely white. A dead gobblers head doesn't change colors much. They usually stay close to the color they were when they were shot. With exception to rigamortis(sp) and blood pooling. You will notice when most turkeys are fighting, for dominance, their heads are not white. Thats said if there are several gobblers together usually the one that has the whitest head is the most dominant because he is the one that is going to breed.

TRKYHTR

This was my thinking, but I wanted other opinions. Thanks TRKYHTR

[outlaw]

Two of the 3 i took had white heads and testy to they liked attacking the decoys

[sugarray]

I think you will get the best response from a nonstrutting pose.  So if you can put the tail down, this will give a less dominant appearance regardless of head color.

If I remember Lovett's post, white for dominance and red for fear.

http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,4790.0.html

and there it is.

[drenalinld]

Thanks Ray. That's the info I needed.

[vaturkey]

Depends on what you mean by dominance. A turkeys head will change color per his mood. It's been my experience that a gobblers head changes to white when he is getting ready to breed a hen. My Jake, Buddy, his head is red alot whenhe is agressive towards other animals or when he wants to fight but when he is strutting trying to get his hen to lay down for him it gets whiter. Then when he gets on top  of her it almost goes completely white. A dead gobblers head doesn't change colors much. They usually stay close to the color they were when they were shot. With exception to rigamortis(sp) and blood pooling. You will notice when most turkeys are fighting, for dominance, their heads are not white. Thats said if there are several gobblers together usually the one that has the whitest head is the most dominant because he is the one that is going to breed.

TRKYHTR

Well said Joe  !!     

[OLE RASPY]

From what ive noticed is red is dominance and or aggresive and white is content or breeding.