Turkey with jet black wings, anyone seen this before?


Huntinfool

Recommended Posts

This is the longbeard that I killed opening day of this past spring season. It was 23 lbs., had a 10 1/2" beard and 1 1/4" spurs. But the neat part was that it had coal black wings with no barring. Has anyone ever seen this before? I talked to a lot of guys who've been hunting and killing turkeys a lot longer than me and I haven't come across anyone who's seen this before (in person). I was told that this color pahse only happens in about one in every 50,000 birds. I don't know if that's accurate or not but maybe someone on here knows. I know it's a genetic trat where I hunt because in 2009 I killed a bird that had 5 feathers on each wing that were jet black, the rest had the normal barring. I think we have another bird on the property that's black as well. Thoughts?

Turkey 2011 106.jpg

Turkey 2011 111.jpg

581c87f0ea207_Turkey2011106.jpg.d0a82d6a50e226ab45001562fca9b910.jpg

581c87f1077c3_Turkey2011111.jpg.63f52db388fe77f4cc0929f28eb87ec1.jpg

Edited by Huntinfool
spelling
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can only recall 1 other gobbler with that color phase in my 35+ years of turkey hunting. I know it's the least common of the 3 odd color phases of wild turkeys but I can't say what the 1 in how many numbers are. The 3 odd color phases are albino (most common), erythritic (red), and melanistic (black). Here's an old pic of mine of a guy here in MS that killed an odd red/white gobbler. No barring on the wings of this bird either.

Odd_Color_Phase_Gobbler.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.