There is nothing like a dame, so to speak
By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Columnist
Early in May, an avid hunter from Rouses Point called in a wild turkey that had some red showing on its head and a beard, the latter making it legal game. He shot the turkey, and after looking it over, found it was a very strange bird indeed.
This turkey had an eight-inch, pencil-thin beard (beards are characteristic of males), but it had no spurs or spikes on the rear of the feet. It also had rich brown features on its stomach, common coloring of female turkeys.
Later, the hunter weighed the turkey, at around 10 pounds, the size of a female.
What exactly was going on with this bird?
Luke Lewis, Regional Biologist with the National Wild Turkey Federation, is sure that this turkey was a hen, and points out that, though not common, 4 percent of hen turkeys do have beards, most being pencil thin and short. A female with an eight-inch beard was probably an older bird.
Beards, as they are called, are actually bristle-like feathers not shed, so they continue to grow throughout the bird’s life. All males have beards, and beards are the distinguishing trait that makes a wild turkey legal game during the spring May 1-31 hunting season.
Spurs, spikes on the rear of the feet of a turkey, are also a male characteristic; these spurs range in length, on average, of one-quarter to three-quarters of an inch.
Lewis speculates the Northern Tier’s unusual bird may have been a dominant female; they are older birds that are territorial and will come to a spring caller.