Passing on birds beyond two years old can be foolish at times. Most conservation departments I'm aware of that even classify birds do so as birds of the year, two year olds and mature adults. Granted, if you don't kill them they may be around next year...maybe. It brings to mind an instance in Missouri I read a number of years ago when they were trapping and transfering. They trapped and banded a jake, transferred him to another county. He was shot and brought to a, at the time, mandatory check station. He had a 9 1/8" beard, weighed under 20# and had 1 1/8" spurs. He was seven years old. Moral of the story: once a bird is a mature adult, his vital statistics can be rather iffy and it can be anybody's guess regarding age. Now...if you can definitely identify a particular bird due to some physical trait or distinctive gobble that's a different story.
