Feather ID, please

12 years ago

I found these feathers on the front porch of the house where I work in Westchester (New York), a few hundred feet from the Hudson River. Can anyone ID them? I looked on Feather Atlas and just got confused. They are quite big; the larger one is about a foot long.

It's a historic house museum, so when no one is there it's very quiet and there's no electricity, and we often find signs of wildlife close to the house. I am curious about what bird left these beautiful feathers on our porch! (ps- I know it's illegal to keep them, I moved and photographed them only to document/id)

This post was edited by stoneheap on Fri, Aug 30, 13 at 20:44

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Comments (7)

tmff
12 years ago
Two questions:

- Which month was it you found these?

- Do you believe they were dropped from the bird during the day or overnight?

This post was edited by TMFF on Sat, Aug 31, 13 at 8:35
tmff
12 years ago
I asked the above questions because I was initially thinking raptor. I now have a different train of thought. I think you have found Wild Turkey secondary wing feathers.

The inverse "thin white stripe on dark background" pattern, the length (for secondaries), and the thick dark shaft all fit Wild Turkey. These are very worn feathers that you found and are not quite as pristine as those in the link, but take a look.

Let me know what you think.

Here is a link that might be useful: FWS Feather Atlas- Wild Turkey
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stoneheap
Original Author
12 years ago
Interesting! I've never seen a wild turkey by the Hudson but it's definitely possible. I figured they belonged to a raptor since I see so many hawks up there, but I really don't know.
I found them on August 30, and they were most likely dropped at night- the place was occupied until 6 pm the night before, and I found them at 8ish the next morning. I should mention that they got a little worn in transit from the porch to the ruler, but they were worn to begin with, and the porch had lots of disturbed foliage like there had been some kind of animal-related event there.

Thanks again for your help!
rpost78
12 years ago
If I had to guess I'd say great horned owl feathers. They look very similar to the owl feathers I used to collect for the local museum when I rehabilitated wildlife. Could have possibly gone for a rodent and dropped feathers in the process. Could have been attacked by a cat in the process. So many variables, but pretty confident it's an owl!
tmff
12 years ago
Check out the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Forensics Lab page called "Feather Atlas". You can view flight feathers (wings and tail) of many species including nearly (if not all) North American raptors. Great-horned Owl flight feathers are not this dark overall, even in a dark individual. The length of these above feathers could fit a GHOW primary + secondary wing feathers (one of each) but the pattern doesn't fit. Size doesn't mesh well with any other raptors. Wild Turkey (secondaries) fits size and pattern.
stoneheap
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for the help! I did check the Feather Atlas but I couldn't find something that matched exactly in the size + pattern. Would a wild turkey leave its feathers in the night?
tmff
12 years ago
I've seen Wild Turkey particularly active in the early AM, just after sunrise. A molting bird could drop anything at any time. Turkey are really quite common and eBird has hundreds of reported sightings all over that area this year (and years past).

I have no reason to believe these are not Wild Turkey feathers. That is the only matching species I found. I would disagree with any hawk or owl ID here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wild Turkey 2013, eBird

This post was edited by TMFF on Mon, Sep 2, 13 at 12:03