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Last Updated: 7/9/18
Go back to the main turkey page.
Go to this page to see a MALE wild turkey named Benny brooding eggs. This was the second case I had heard of of a tom setting eggs.
Definition:
Snood = the fleshy growth that occurs on the head of a turkey, right behind the beak. It grows
larger in males and eventually hangs down off the side of the beak.
The photos are in order from most recently sent to oldest. Both domestic and wild turkeys are pictured here. If you would like to contribute a photo, contact me.
I took these photos of Royal Palm turkeys on 4/1/15 at a small zoo.
Royal Palm tom
Royal Palm tom
Two Royal Palm hens - one of the hens is bearded; a peacock is also
photo bombing.
Evelyn sent this photo of seven baby Eastern wild turkey poults on 6/13/12.
Wild turkey poults
Gerry in Minnesota sent these photos of normal and "smoke phase" (partial albino) wild turkeys
in the snow on 2/7/11. He also sent this link on smoke-phase turkeys. Almost all smoke-
phase wild turkeys are female.
One smoke-phase wild turkey hen and three
normal (I think)
Two smoke-phase wild turkey hens
Two smoke-phase wild turkey hens
Male Eastern wild turkey at Zoo America attached to Hershey Park on 8/27/10, taken by me.
On 5/24/10, Mary from Cananda sent these photos of a white wild turkey and its thirteen
poults.
White wild turkey hen and poults
White wild turkey hen and poults - she is
squatting on them.
Bob in Michigan sent these photos of wild tom turkeys fighting over a female as well as a female
with poults on 5/19/10. The toms were taken on 4/29/06 according to one photo and the hen and
poults were taken on 5/18/10. He said the toms fought for two hours oblivious to his
presence.
Six male wild turkeys - the two on the
right are fighting
Two male wild turkeys fighting; they stand
up on their legs and tussle their beaks and sometimes kick and flap each other
Four male wild turkeys fighting, all stuck
together
Two male wild turkeys fighting
The winning tom - fan displaying
Female wild turkey and seven poults - two
are white
Three poults - one regular and two
white
Hen and two poults - one regular and one
white
Hen and three poults - one regular and two
white
Two poults - one regular and one
white
Kathy sent these photos of a wild turkey hen and her six babies on 5/25/09. I can only find five
babies.
Wild turkey hen and five poults
Wild turkey hen and five poults
Tom sent this photo on 5/25/09 of his wild turkey hen and her five babies.
Wild turkey hen and five poults
On 9/24/08, Annette sent this photo of her baby wild turkey named Hatch. He was about a week
or two old here and was accidently killed a few weeks later. So sad. ;-(
Wild turkey poult sleeping
On 8/29/08, Mike sent these two photos of a white Eastern wild turkey in North Carolina.
White Turkey
White Turkey and Regular Wild
Turkey
On 6/11/08, someone without a name sent these photos of a flock of wild turkeys in Ohio.
Wild turkey flock
A few wild turkeys
On 4/19/08, Joni sent these photos of a white turkey. It looks to be all white. She says there are
no domestic turkeys around, just lots of wild turkeys.
White turkey
White turkey
White turkey
Ed in New York sent these photos on 4/7/08 of a partially white Eastern wild turkey mixed in
with regular wild turkeys.
Partial white turkey and a regular wild
turkey
Partial white turkey and a regular wild
turkey
Eight wild turkeys including the partially
white one and a tom displaying (rear view).
On 3/14/08, Amanda in Florida, sent these photos of her turkeys. Her husband believes they are
a pair Osceola wild turkeys but she does not agree. I do not know enough about varieties to
identify them. I thought that the female had too many adornments to be a wild turkey
variety.
Male Turkey
Male Turkey Wing Feathers
Female Turkey Wing Feathers
Pair of Turkeys
Pair of Turkeys
On 1/27/08, Susan sent these photos of her now adult five month old male turkey ("Helen") and
its mother peahen (Renee) (see below for older photos when the turkey was a baby.). These
photos verify that
"Helen" the turkey is a tom.
Domestic turkey and mother peahen and
a
chicken
Domestic turkey with mother peahen and
a bunch of chickens
Domestic turkey with mother peahen and
a chicken
Domestic turkey with mother peahen and
two chickens
Domestic turkey with mother peahen and
a bunch of chickens
On 1/18/08, Mike sent these photos of a flock of wild turkeys that included two partial albinos in
Mississippi.
About 13 wild turkeys including two partially
white turkeys
About 8 wild turkeys including one partially
white turkey
About 7 wild turkeys including one partially
white turkey
On 1/7/08, Chuck sent these photos of a lot of wild turkeys in North Carolina. Among them was
a white turkey. The photos were taken from a distance.
About 15 wild turkeys including one white
turkey
About 5 wild turkeys including one white
turkey - zoom in
About 9 wild turkeys including one white
turkey
On 11/30/07, Larry sent these photos of an "unusual white bird" which turned out to be a turkey
hen. She appears to be a domestic turkey, a royal palm hen (thanks to Callise on 7/11/08 for
confirming!).
White turkey
White turkey
White turkey
White turkey
White turkey
On 10/6/07, Susan sent newer photos of her baby male turkey poult with its "mommy" peahen.
[See below for the earlier photos.]
Domestic turkey poult (about 10 weeks old)
and mother peahen
Domestic turkey poult (about 10 weeks
old)
Domestic turkey poult (about 10 weeks old)
and mother peahen
Domestic turkey poult (about 10 weeks old)
and mother peahen
On 9/16/07, Susan in Canada sent these photos of her baby male turkey poult that was hatched
by
a peahen. She said, "Last year a peahen flew onto my 5 acre property and gradually adopted my
horses, dogs, cats, chickens and myself. We were honoured. After conveying the message that
she seriously wanted to sit her two infertile eggs, I contacted a neighbor who is a major birder
and caretaker of many large fowl. Two fertilized turkey eggs and exactly 28 days later, two
lovely chicks emerged. One thrived, the other withered and died on Day 5."
I will soon add photos of the poult when he was older.
Domestic turkey poult (6 weeks old) and
mother peahen
Domestic turkey poult (6 weeks old)
Two domestic turkey poults (a few days old)
and mother peahen
Domestic turkey poult (about a week
old)
Domestic turkey poult (about a week
old)
Kris sent these photos of a turkey with hip and leg problems. [Note, I forgot to put the date in
before deleting the e-mail but I believe it was early September, 2007.] The problems are most
likely due
to the heavy weight of this domestic turkey. Such problems are common for birds that are
"meant" to be slaughtered by humans at a young age and do not age well. Since he did not say,
The turkey appears to be a young tom but could be an over-adorned hen (which is pretty
common
in domestics). I cannot see if the turkey has a beard (females very rarely do). Kris did not give
more information.
Domestic turkey - front view
Domestic turkey - head view
Domestic turkey - head view
On 9/3/07, Nancy sent these photos of her 3-month-old Eastern wild turkeys. She wanted me to
sex them. My guesses are listed below but may not be 100% correct. My guesses are based on
existence and size of the snood (thing on top of their beak) and body size. They are too
young to sex easily/quickly since they are not mature. She contacted me a month later to say
they
had been released. She thinks there is one female and two males so my guesses below must be
off somewhere. Feel free to correct me!
Three wild turkeys - thought males left
and right background but one must be female if she only ended up with one male, female
foreground
Two wild turkeys - male left, female
right
Two wild turkeys - male left, cannot see
head of turkey on the right
Wild turkey - cannot see head at the right
angle
Three wild turkey- left to right, male,
female, female?
Three wild turkey - left to right, male,
female, female?
Wild turkey - young male
Wild turkey - head of a male, close-up of
the previous photo
On 8/22/07, Jennifer sent me these three photos of a turkey. She is a rehabilitator and go this
turkey. She wanted to know if it was a wild turkey. I told her that I thought it was a young male
Eastern wild turkey. The bird is too lanky to be domestic and otherwise looks like wild turkeys I
have seen both alive and in photos. He seems to have the beginning of a snood and dewlap as a
young male would.
Wild turkey - front view
Wild turkey - head view
Wild turkey - left side view
On 8/9/07, Patti sent these photo of her mixed breed turkeys. There are more photos from here
below from 5/5/07. She said, "Just thought you would like to see this...the two sons first time to
show their tail feathers off to their dad turkey 'Mr. Bo Jangles' and their mom 'Lady Heart
Jingle.' Dad is on the left, and his two sons to the right. Mom is to the far left." The toms are
all displaying in these photos.
Three turkey toms and one hen and about
six chickens
Three turkey toms and two chickens
Two turkey toms
I took these photos at our county fair on 8/8/07.
Domestic turkeys - a couple of bronze
domestic turkeys(?)
Domestic turkeys - a couple of bronze
domestic turkeys(?) in the background. In the foreground is a side view of what they labeled as
an "old Bourbon red tom" but he seems to have more white and less red than I have seen on
Bourbon reds.
Domestic turkeys - front view of the old
"Bourbon red" tom on the right (look at his long beard!) and a bronze(?) domestic on the left.
I took this photo of a domestic turkey (maybe bronze) at the Land of the
Little Horses on 7/29/07. Unfortunately, the photo is through a fence. I think he was
molting.
Domestic turkey tom
Vince in New York sent these photos of a female Eastern wild turkey and her eggs which never
hatched on 6/26/07. The photos are very, very tiny so I decided to upload them all.
Turkey on nest
Turkey eggs
Turkey eggs
Turkey hen walking around
Turkey hen walking around
Turkey hen walking around
Turkey hen walking around
Turkey hen walking around
Turkey eggs
Turkey eggs
Turkey eggs
Turkey hen walking around
Tom sent all these photos on 6/13/07 of a flock of wild turkeys outside his window. He took the
photos from inside the house looking out to a field. Most of the photos are of males displaying.
He added captions to some of the photos.
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Kari sent these photos of her turkeys on 5/8/07. They are various mixed domestic breeds like
maybe slate, bronze, and Bourbon red (the red ones are obvious).
Four turkeys
Four turkeys
On 5/5/07, Patti sent these photo of her turkeys. I think they are mixed breeds.
Turkeys - three adults and eight young
poults
Tom Turkey - displaying
She later sent this photo on 6/15/07 of a turkey looking down from a tree.
Turkey
On 4/29/07, Joni sent some photos of her mixed breed turkeys (mix of wild turkeys, Royal Palm,
and other domestic breeds). She said, "We have been raising turkeys for about 3 years....We
started with 4 Wild-Cross (?) turkeys. We now have 35 adult birds and 50 babies with 150 on the
way! We are not sure exactly what kind they are. Last year we had a hen and a tom with
beautiful white, gold, cinnamon colors....They look like Royal Palms but I'm not quite sure. If
anyone knows the exact type of our black ones and the 2 pied-like, I sure wouldn't mind being
e-mailed back." If you contact me, I will forward it to her.
Fancy Turkeys - a male Royal Palm mix and
others
Fancy Turkeys - a male bronze mix
Fancy Turkeys
Fancy Turkey - a tom's fan from behind
Fancy Turkey - male bronze mix sitting
down
Fancy Turkey - male bronze mix
displaying
On 4/29/07, Laurie sent these photos of a wild turkey in her yard in Sacramento, California.
Wild Turkey - male displaying
Wild Turkey - same male when not
displaying
On 4/26/07, I went to a local petting zoo. They had a pair of Bourbon red turkeys. Here are
some photos that I took. The turkeys refused to get into position for a good photo!
Bourbon red tom - nice rear view!
Bourbon red tom - left side view
Bourbon red hen - all I could get was her
rear; she did not want to turn around.
Bourbon red tom - right side view
Gus took these photos of a Gould's turkey in Arizona which he told me about on 4/15/07. I hope
the external links still work. He said I could put the photos on my site but Webshots will not
allow me to pull the photos off their site (they want money).
Gould's tom
turkey - side view, displaying.
Gould's tom
turkey - front view, closed up.
Gould's
turkeys - displaying tom and two hens.
Sandy lives near Sacramento, California and has a lot of wild turkeys come through her
suburban
yard. She sent this first photo on 1/10/07 and the two after that on 1/16/07. I liked those last two
photos so much that I made them bigger than most photos that I resize for my site. I do not
know
for sure if I counted the number of turkeys correctly; you can check for yourself.
Five male turkeys - four are
displaying/fanning. These mature toms are so gorgeous!
30 turkeys! - I have never seen so many
turkeys in one place, especially in such a non-wild setting. Two of the birds have white on them
and may either have interbred with domestic turkeys or be a mutation.
26 turkeys! - another view of the huge
gathering of mostly females and young males (drakes).
Steve sent these photos on 11/25/06 of a unique turkey in the wilds of Southern Virginia near the
Blue Ridge Parkway. It is not albino but it is not normal either. This turkey has white and black
on the back and sides and brown, black, and white on the tail. It is either a random mutation, or,
more likely, there is some domestic turkey mixed in.
Unique turkey with two regular wild turkeys (I
think they may be three young males or drakes)
Unique turkey with one regular wild
turkey
Unique turkey
Unique turkey
It is the month of unique turkeys! Juliet discovered a turkey in the wild that was not behaving as
a wild turkey. It was pretty tame. With ideas from me and on her end, they were able to trap the
turkey and send photos. They plan to move him to a farm. This turkey is definitely not a wild
turkey. It also does not match any domestic turkeys I have ever seen including rare heritage
breeds. I figure it is a mixed breed. The bird is gorgeous! Apparently, right before these photos,
the turkey had molted. Before the molt, the turkey may have been mostly white. If the turkey is
young, it could be male because of the body shape and small snood as well as perhaps beginning
neck adornments. If the turkey is larger (adult), it is female. Juliet will hopefully update us
later!
These photos were sent to me on 11/18/06 and 11/19/06. She sent a lot of photos but they are
small, and the turkey is so neat, I just put them all here.
Unique turkey - front
Unique turkey - front
Unique turkey - back
Unique turkey - right side
Unique turkey - head
Unique turkey - right side
Unique turkey - head
Unique turkey - head
Unique turkey - left side
Unique turkey - left side
Unique turkey - head
Unique turkey - right side
Unique turkey - back (beautiful!)
Unique turkey - right side from front
Unique turkey - right side
Unique turkey - right side; look at that
expression! "Ok, you caught me, now I'm in control, and I have a list of demands! First, this
food...."
Barbara sent these photos on 11/1/06 of a male wild turkey named Henry who just showed up in
her yard. Henry is sitting on a fence. He seems tame and was probably raised by humans. The
photos are dated 10/8/06.
Henry
Henry - close-up of the last photo showing his
snood and adornments
Henry
Henry
On 8/30/06, Jennifer sent a dozen small photos of her Eastern wild turkeys. She hatched four
from eggs and had two survivors. These photos are from most recent to when they were younger
(three ages I think).
Two turkeys on a truck, male turkey strutting on a railing, male turkey strutting on a railing, male turkey strutting on a railing, male turkey, male turkey strutting on a railing, man holding turkey, woman holding turkey, two turkeys driving farm equipment?, two turkeys roosting on woman's arm, two turkeys as tiny babies, and two turkeys as tiny babies.
On 8/3/06, Robert sent these two photos of wild turkeys in Asheville, North Carolina. One of
the gobblers looks at first like an albino but we both think it is probably a mix of domestic and
wild turkeys.
Four hens and three toms
Mixed variety tom and a regular hen below
that
I went to the zoo on 6/7/06 and took two photos of what I
think are a
pair Royal Palm domestic turkeys:
Royal palm turkeys - male left, female right.
Royal palm turkeys - male left, female right.
Joyce sent these four photos of her wild turkeys and their run on 5/21/06 in North Carolina. The
pen is 75' x 12' in
size and contains two adult male wild turkeys, two adult female wild turkeys, an adult peacock,
and the offspring of the wild turkeys (five eggs hatched via natural incubation on 5/21/06 but I
think she said only one male of those survived).
There seem to be some white birds in there too? The photos are a little blurry.
Cage with turkeys and peacock
Cage with turkeys and peacock
Cage with turkeys and peacock
Cage with turkeys and peacock
A person without a name in the message sent these three photos of an albino wild turkey in
Washington state near Spokane on 4/1/06. This turkey seems to be an actual albino as opposed
to the turkeys in the next paragraph.
White wild turkey with flock
White wild turkey close-up
White wild turkey and a regular one
Steve sent these two photos on 3/29/06 of a "white turkey hen in the Withlacoochee State Forest
(north central Florida) last week.... was in a small group of 5 hens, all the rest were normal
colored. Someone else said that someone had seen a white turkey in the area before." He says
there are no domestic turkeys in the area.
White wild turkey hen
White wild turkey hen
Here are some links relating to white wild turkeys:
White
wild turkeys?
Log - funny! I don't agree that
white wild turkeys must come from breeding with domestics. By chance, they can occur now
and
again.
White turkey
photo
White wild turkeys -
has photos they say are white wild turkeys but those birds definitely have the patterning and
body
build of domestic turkeys.
This site has photos of domestic breeds (and some wild too) - Turkeys
On 2/14/06 and 2/16/06, Don in Kansas sent these turkey photos.
Mr. Muzzy - a 3-year-old male wild turkey
with a 5" beard and 0.5 to 0.75 inch spurs. Mr. Muzzy may be an Eastern wild turkey or a hybrid
with a Rio Grande wild turkey.
Miss Hen - a 2-year-old female domestic
black Spanish hen.
Mr. Muzzy
Mr. Muzzy (from behind) and Miss Hen
On 10/20/05, Wendy sent me this photo of her 8 wild Eastern turkeys.
On 9/11/05, Charlie sent me these photos of his turkeys.
Wild turkey tom - Elmer who is 1.5 years
old
Wild turkey tom displaying - Elmer
Broad-breasted bronze domestic turkey hen -
Jenny who is 1.5 years old; I am guessing that is Elmer in the background
Six wild Eastern turkey poults - they look to
be a few weeks old
In August of 2005, Greg sent some photos of his nine turkeys. Two of them are wild turkeys.
The rest are Royal Palm domestic turkeys. I am not sure of the ages but the first photo seems
to be about 1.5 months with the others at about 2.5 months.
Two wild turkeys and seven Royal Palms
One wild turkey and six Royal Palms.
Two wild turkeys and six Royal Palms.
Two wild turkeys and six Royal Palms.
Lisa sent me some captive Eastern wild turkey photos on 6/2/05 and 6/4/05 but I did not link
them in until 2/3/07! This was a unique case because the tom did a lot (even the majority) of the
incubation which I found hard to believe. He would sit on the eggs during the night with the hen
mother on them most of the day. Near the end, he did all the sitting. The tom squished a bunch
of the eggs. Since a male has no brood patch to keep the eggs warm enough, I was surprised any
hatched. She said he did have a naked chest from mating. [My male turkey mated with his
mate/sister all the time and never got a naked spot.] Of the 11 eggs, only one hatched, shown
below. When they later laid more eggs, he kept sitting on them right away (instead of waiting
for
a clutch) and continued to break them.
Wild Eastern turkey hatchling
The proud father - notice the spot on his
chest where feathers seem to be ripped out. He supposedly made himself a brood patch.
The mother (left) and father (right)
Mike informed me that Julie's photos below were not of Osceola wild turkeys but Merriams
which were probably just sold at the feed store. Then, he sent all these nice photos of wild wild
turkeys to share (around May 2005):
2+ male (4 total) Eastern Wild turkeys,
displaying
2 male Eastern wild turkeys, closed up
Pair of Eastern wild turkeys mating plus 2 male
and 1 female extra
One male Eastern turkey displaying
2 displaying male Eastern wild turkeys with
lots of hens (15 total birds)
1 male Goulds wild turkey, closed up
1 male Merriams wild turkey
2 male Merriams wild turkeys
4 Rio Grande wild turkeys (possibly 2 male, 1
female, 1 I can't tell)
1 male, 1 female Osceola wild turkeys
3 male, 1 female Osceola wild turkeys
1 male Osceola wild turkey
1 male, 1 female Osceola wild turkeys
2 male Osceola wild turkeys
1 female Osceola wild turkey
Barbie sent me these two photos of her Eastern wild turkeys and some ducks on 4/20/05:
Wild turkeys
Wild turkeys
Barbie later sent on 9/4/05, this photo of her wild turkeys:
Seven wild Eastern turkeys - a tom is on the far
left
Julie sent these three photos of her two turkeys 12/13/04. The tom died but she now has a bunch
more turkeys.
Tom - Merriam wild tom that she told me was
Osceola but Mike said was Merriams (here is a link on the Osceola variety from Florida:
Osceola wild turkeys)
Tom and female - Merriam wild tom and
domestic slate hen
Tom - Merriam wild tom
Two bronze domestic turkeys from Suzanne
on
11/6/04. She thinks the one in front is female (verified when she later laid eggs) and the one in
back male (that turkey died the following month via predators). There is a neat looking duck
back there too. She later told me that the duck is a Muscovy drake. The next two photos were
also from Suzanne at the same time. She was asking what was wrong with t
he turkey who looks
uncomfortable. We decided she must have gotten a physical injury (she had an injury a
few weeks before but seemed to recover) perhaps from falling off a low roof.
Domestic bronze turkey - a hen who is
injured/sick, front view.
Domestic bronze turkey - a hen who is
injured/sick, side view.
Back around 2001 or so, someone (I long ago lost their name and the date and only put these up
as links on 11/13/04) sent me these photos of a poult that I think is a white albino Eastern wild
turkey but I might be wrong. It looks to be about a month old.
Head of white turkey
Body of white turkey - with ruler
Roy sent me so many photos of his Eastern wild turkeys as they grew up that I put them in their own section here. The photos are in chronological order.
Roy sent me photos of the Eastern wild turkey poults that he ordered on 5/11/05. They are just a
few days old.
Close-up of poults
Poults and their setup
Poults close up (irresistible!)
Poults and their setup
A bunch of poults
Roy sent me photos of the same poults at almost one month old on 6/7/05. There are at the stage
where they look awkward because they are changing plumage.
About 7 poults
About 10 poults
2 perched poults (I add the text)
About 3 poults including one close-up
About 10 poults
On 7/22/05, Roy sent some more photos of the poults taken 7/8/05 when they were
2-months-old.
Here they are:
2 poults - the main one appears to be a male
based on the developing snood (thing on his head)
1 poult - seems to be female
3 poults
About 13 poults
13 poults
On 8/5/05, Roy sent me yet more photos of the now 3-month-old Eastern wild turkeys.
Four wild turkeys
One wild turkey - male
Two wild turkeys - one is flying off the
roost
Nine wild turkeys
Four wild turkeys
On 4/25/06, Roy sent some more photos of his Eastern wild turkeys that are almost a year old in
these photos. He has 9 hens and 4 toms. Roy hatched one poult from an egg laid in March but
has 42 eggs in the incubator now (actually they should be hatching now as I am putting these
photos on here a month after he sent them)! I asked what he was going to do with all those
turkeys! He did not answer.
A young poult under 9 days old
A gobbler
The pen with a bunch of turkeys
About 8 eggs scattered about
An incubator full of 42 of their eggs!
These photos from 8/30/12 show wild Eastern wild turkeys on our land. It is a mother hen and
six full grown poults. Sorry that the photos are not very clear.
Wild turkeys - four or five wild turkeys
Wild turkey - one turkey
Wild turkeys - two or three turkeys
Wild turkeys - hen followed by five babies
Wild turkeys - close up of the previous
photo
Video of
the wild turkeys.
I finally saw another wild turkey in our back yard on 7/8/18! It was far away so I got no photos. I think it was a tom.
These were my pet turkeys:
Clyde on 12/26/96, a few months after Bonnie
died. Sorry it is through the cage fencing. Since my turkeys are deceased, I cannot go back and
get some decent photos! These are the best of the regular photos I had to scan! The turkeys
were before digital cameras and my web site!
Picture of my wild turkey hen's nest with 4 eggs
in it, 4/24/94
Bonnie (in the front, hard to see) and Clyde
taken on September 6, 1993.
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