Please Help me Identify the Subspecies

[ChocolateHeads]

Please Help me Identify the Subspecies

[ChocolateHeads]

Photo 2

[Rio Fan]

I'll say it's a Merriams, but I could be wrong.

[Gamblinman]

Merriams, or a Hybird. Without knowing where the bird was harvested, it would be just a guess.

Gman

[jblackburn]

Looks Merriams, but could be Rio hybrid.  Use this to tel by where it was killed:

http://www.nwtf.org/for_hunters/all_about_turkeys.html

[Blong]

Don't know, I have killed Easters with the light tips also

[mgm1955]

Looks like a Merriam.

[GobbleNut]

I agree that, from what can be seen in the pictures, it looks like a Merriams.  The logical choices are Merriams, Rio, or hybrid of those,...unless you killed a Goulds in Mexico or southeastern Arizona. Tell us where you killed it and we might be able to narrow it down a bit for you. 

[hookedspur]

I think its a Rio or Rio X Merriam Hybrid because a pure Merriam white tips are more straight
across the bottom not as rounded as the Rio as in this picture.

[Gumby]

Rio

[Gamblinman]

Its a jake, so it doesn't have his adult feathers in yet.

[ChocolateHeads]

This jake was taken in Morgan Hill, CA (Santa Clara County). According to the NWTF map this is rio country but is sure doesn't look like a rio to me.

[GobbleNut]

Look at the iridescence of the feathers, especially the iridescent band just below the tips of the feathers on the rump right below the fan.  If that iridescence has a gold/copper/brass look about it when looked at in direct sunlight, then the bird is either a Rio or a Rio hybrid.  Pure Merriams do not have any of that goldish iridescence. 

[RutnNStrutn]

Looks like a Rio, or a hybrid to me. Where was it killed?

[ChocolateHeads]

This jake was taken in Morgan Hill, CA (Santa Clara County)