gender of Eastern Wild Turkey?

kendra2003

13 years ago

I have had this turkey in my yard all day. It was in the 90's today, so I brought "her" a bowl of water, which was much appreciated. I have been calling this turkey a female all day, but looking at the picture closer, it appears to have something sticking out above the beak. Could this be a juvenile male or is it a female?

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Comments (6)

feather_z9_ncacoast
13 years ago
Looks like a hen to me, but I would have to see the front to be certain....males have longer and thicker beards on their breasts than females do :)
lisa11310
13 years ago
Go look at the poop. I have been told from a pretty relialable source that female poos are curled amd males are straight. I get both poos at my pond. Go figure! lol (Feather, I have never seen a female with a beard) I believe you but can you explain females with beards to me? We have tons of wild Turkeys out here in the woods of West Michigan. Actually looking at the tail I think it's a "Jenny" or "first year female"..First year males are caled "Jakes" though I bet these names change depending where you are, kinda like "soda" or "pop". The males or "Jakes" have wider tails even when folded.
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After the breeding frenzy in late winter and early spring, the turkeys here disappear for a few months. The hens go off into the woods to lay eggs and don't reappear until June if they've successfully hatched a brood. If they lose the brood the hens may return earlier. I don't know where the toms go. I did see one lone tom most of this summer. Two years ago was a really bad year for poults - I think the predators got most of them. This year there was a cooperative event and six hens stayed together with about thirty poults in tow. This was a great traffic stopper on our small rural streets. There was a later, smaller brood too. June 19, 2014 Hens with small poults. July 31, 2014 Hens with growing poults. After they returned I saw turkeys all summer, mostly hens and the growing poults, but few toms. Now that it's getting colder the toms are back too. I suspect there's enough food in the woods during warm weather and turkeys can forage by themselves. The hens with poults to feed probably appreciate my buffet and fresh water (neighbors feed them too) and they may feel safer here than in the woods. In Massachusetts the wild turkey hunting season is Spring: Apr. 28 - May 24 and Fall: Oct. 20 - Nov. 1. Claire Edited to add a tree since this is the Trees Forum. Juniperus virginiana - Eastern Red Cedar shown with turkeys above. This post was edited by claire on Sun, Nov 30, 14 at 11:01
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When I first saw those tracks last winter I did send the photos to every big cat website I could think of, with no results. Apparently, there aren't any track forums, and jaguars are now officially "extinct" in North America. This forum is full of nature experts, so I posted the track photos here next, but in the meantime I did my own research and got a game cam, but its been too wary to get in front of them. For old timers, remember how the webmaster, Spike, would censor any post that was "off subject?" Didn't mean to upset those who haven't been following my jaguar saga. For the purists, there were wild turkey photos on the cam also. Since I also post photos to my blog and on Twitter, where the subjects aren't strictly segmented, I sometimes assume all people who are interested in birds are also interested in other creatures in the same environment. But if the animal finally gets on camera, that would be the only wild jaguar in North America (at least, officially). I did question the neighbor and he described the black kitten as having a "large, square" head, and short legs, and the tracks for jaguars are larger and shaped differently from both cougar and leopard tracks. The sounds we heard were nothing like a cougar, which I have heard. They were like the sounds on the National Geographic clip I already posted, and the tracks, seen clearly in the mud, next to a ruler, are in the link I already posted as well. The jaguar is the largest North American cat, with 4 1/4" wide front tracks and a metapad that fills most of the track. The game cam photo with the whiskers doesn't show what animal it is, just that something with long whiskers was messing with the camera the same night we heard the strange calls right outside our tent. I found tracks everywhere afterward, but none of them were clear, or in mud.
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bbcathy
13 years ago
This is definitely a hen. You can tell by the head. Males would be much brighter red and blue. The beard in the front of the chest will be on males. The length of it depends on age. Females are much more brown and males more black. All Turkeys have that thingy on their head. You can tell the sex of a Turkey by the poop and the tracks. The females are a circular clump and the males looks like the letter J. I've always wondered if you could tell on some other species birds as well. With the tracks the females tracks are longer than wide with the middle toe the longest. The males have equal length toes and tracks are about as wide as they are long.
Hope this helps
Cathy
lisa11310
13 years ago
Funny I knew about the poop thing but didnt know about the feet! I think you are the first person to validate my poop ID. LOL! Now I wonder who followed Turkeys around studying their poo and why?
kendra2003
Original Author
13 years ago
Wow, thanks so much for all your information. It is a hen then. She has been hanging around the end of the driveway again today. Last night she flew over my dog fence and tried to make friends with the Guinea Fowl (still penned because of their age) and boy did they get upset. She was fascinated by them. I suppose they are a similar shape and maybe she thought they were baby turkeys.
Elly_NJ
13 years ago
I think it's a poult, and a hen. I think the males have spurs on their heels.

gender of Eastern Wild Turkey?

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gender of Eastern Wild Turkey?

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