Aging a bird

[g8rvet]

North Florida - Eastern.

Age?

10" beard, not real thick.  1" spurs with slight curve and pointed tip.  Full size, but not super heavy for our area. 

I looked up aging birds in several places, but wondered what y'all would call this bird, age wise.

[fallhnt]

3 yr old

[snapper1982]

Mature and that is the best you can call him without following him from hatch.

[WAGinVA]

I agree with both previous responses.  Based on the description turkey is very likely to be at least a 3yo.  After 3 years it is anybody's guess.

[RutnNStrutn]

I'm far from an expert, but from what I know of Easterns, their spurs don't grow as fast as Osceola spurs do. With that said, I'll go with a 3 year old.

[Greg Massey]

I agree with all the others.. 2 1/2 year old maybe a 3

[Dr Juice]

It ain't getting any older :-)

[davisd9]

Take the beard and look at it with a light behind it. If it is amber then two yr old, if not then 3+. All you can know for sure.


Sent from the Strut Zone

[davisd9]

What do the tips of his beard look like.

A 2 year old will not have worn all his original tips off and they will be an amber or reddish color. A 3 year old will have worn all the tips off by now and there won't be a different color. You may have to hold the beard up to good light to see the difference in color.

Should have read all the post before replying. This is what I was saying as well.

[hobbes]

Same as said above the only three responses to how old any given bird is should be jake, two year old, or older than two.

[g8rvet]

Thanks all and Hey Jim!

I'll hold his beard to the light, never knew that.

[hobbes]

Same as said above the only three responses to how old any given bird is should be jake, two year old, or older than two.

Agreed...but it is still lots of fun to speculate. 

And there is a fourth response...call the biologist if the turkey is banded. 

I tried to edit my response to add the following but the wifi here keeps going down.

Nothing wrong with venturing a guess.  I think it would be safe to say that a tom with 1 1/2" spurs is an older bird, but a tom with 1 1/8" spurs may be just as old.

Treerooster, your previous post on banded birds was the first thing I thought of when I read this thread.

[SteelerFan]

Here on OG that sounds like 3... at work, call him 7 

[stinkpickle]

Pick a number between 3 and 10, and your guess will be as good as anybody's. 

[MK M GOBL]

Let's play the genetics card here, aging any turkey after his second year is anybody's guess. *Unless he is tagged... Now we usually have some general guesses to age and this can vary area to area by what your local birds generally have for spurs...

MK M GOBL