OK Mickey, here are some shots showing the white tails of these birds. Merriams' tail edges tend to vary a bit from a light buff to pure white, but the majority of them will be a very light buff with a pure white edge.
These three guys are pretty typical.
Those unfamiliar with Merriams will also notice their beards are somewhat shorter and thinner...never the real heavy broomstick type on some Easterns. Apparently the Merriams have shorter legs to body ratio, normal wear keeping mature beards around 7-9 inches, with 7 1/2 being very typical.
The shot below is of a bird running while still in partial fan mode. He is a good example of one on the white side of the spectrum. He was chasing a couple other gobblers. They are right at the stage where they still carry on more for each other than for the hens.
I added the last picture to show an example of how dramatically their head color can differ, often within seconds...here is one with pure white and powder blue!
Does anybody have any sample to share of Florida turkeys or Rio Grandes? I would love to see the comparisons!
Lon
Topic: turkey picture (Read 1862 times)
