Saw a flock of wild turkey at the Chalco Hills Recreational Area with a white bird with a red head in the flock. I've never seen a white wild turkey before and wondered if anyone else had.

I thought maybe the Game and Fish might have cross breed with domestic birds here. Saw a white one with bluish spots on it amongst a flock of more natural looking birds. Or maybe it was an albino.

Yep, I've seen several over the years in Stringtown Gulch west of Ft. Collins, CO.
Don't think they are as rare as White Buffalo, or hold the significance.

Iv heard of a few here in Michigan they call them a smoke colored bird, not all white tho!

I remember years ago of a white bird being killed in Spring in south central Pa. Had about a 6" beard and weigh almost 30 lbs. I believe that one was considered a loose domestic bird. Bowed legs and all.

Sounds domestic to me. People report smoke phase a lot and most are probably Narraganset turkey that have gotten loose if in farming areas or domestic and wild crosses

I have pictures on my phone right now with a white wild turkey on it. Last fall I was bowhunting deer and up in a tree in my climber when a fall flock of about twenty five turkeys came by. They were scratching for acorns as they made their way to the roost. A pure white hen was in the group. They never got closer than 75 yards and I got to watch them for about 150 yards as they slowly worked their way across the hillside from me. This on a huge block of public ground with not a farm for dozens of miles.

Other than the white color, this turkey looked like the other turkeys in the flock. If the flock stays in the recreation area, it with be safe from hunters. There were two whitetail does browsing along with the turkeys when I drove by them, about 15' away from the deer and closer to the turkeys.

There was a white gobbler a couple of years ago around here in southwestern Montana. Not many people raise domestic turkeys around here, and this one hung out with a bunch of Merriam's up a local drainage about 5-6 miles from town. A state highway runs alongside the creek, and a number of people saw the white one, but not after that year. At that time the turkey season in the area was a draw, with only 25 tags given out, and I didn't hear about anybody tagging it.

I say this because I called in a "smoke" phase bird that was killed by my best friend. TN biologist requested a feather/quill for testing DNA we had been trying to kill him for 3 years. He told us he has tested dozens of "smoke" and white/mixed color turkeys and all had domestic DNA mixed in. Nothing is impossible though.

I think that most of the wild turkeys in Nebraska die from natural causes rather than being killed by hunters. During the 27 years that I've hunted turkeys in eastern Nebraska, I don't think that I've seen a dozen hunters out during the days and hours that I was out.

The white one in this pictures took two seasons for my buddy to kill. Was with a large flock of merriams.

I've seen one white turkey that was in a flock of normal colored birds. I'm pretty sure that this one was an albino, as there were no domestic turkeys around. However, about 25 miles away at the Ft. Campbell Kentucky military reservation, where they allow turkey hunting, there are a number of white turkeys. They want hunters to kill everyone they see, as those birds are mixed with domestic turkeys.

This is common, we have quite a few on the lease I'm on in Burnet Texas. I looked it up once. Brown birds occur too sometimes.

White turkeys are more common the closer you get to farms and ranches. For a while in the 1970s and 1980s, a lot of "wild turkey" poults were advertised for sale in farm and ranch magazines. Evidently, quite a few folks bought these and raised them, turning them loose in an effort to bolster resident wild turkey populations.

I am guessing that most of these were from Merriam's stock, as that subspecies is the one that flourishes in captivity. However, a significant number of those poults were actually from domestic turkeys. There are turkey biologists that believe that our wild Merriam's are descended from turkeys raised by ancient pueblo people in Mexico and by the Anisazi during the period from about 1100-1400 AD.

I killed one near the red river in Texas the spring of 1986. It looked like a domestic turkey from a distance. It was mixed with a large flock of wild Rio Grande turkey and I shot it thinking it was a domestic or a cross bred. Looking at it closer it wasn't actually white but light grey with darker grey markings. I had the local Game warden look at it. We both thought it was a cross bred but DNA testing proved it was a wild bird with an unusual color phase.

Funny I went turkey hunting this past week, no Luck, but a guy that lives down the road for camp wife shot a Turkey they are calling a Smokey Grey Pretty Tom, DNR says its a wild Turkey but rare color Phase, Iv got a pic of it on my Phone if some one wants too, PM Me a Phone # and Ill send it to them to post!

mudhen,

have any of those turkey biologists tried to extract any DNA from the bones found in the old ruins? To compare with today's turkeys in the area?

That would be an interesting senior thesis or even a master's grad project, no?

Geno

PS, With humans' propensity for letting "Tom" the pet turkey out in the woods, along with "Goldy" the fish in the river, and "Bun Bun" the Easter present out in the field, there is a good possibility many flocks have some domestic turkey DNA, no?

PPS, I'm not a bird biologist, but it makes sense to me that we bred domestic white turkeys from wild birds somewhere back in time, so shouldn't there be a light colored gene or two in our wild populations?

This is not all together uncommon wild turkeys mate with domestic. Called a Narragansett turkey. Saw one in MD on a friends farm a few years back it was a big hen.

Good luck and shoot straight all especially at the boss gobbler.

Bob

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narragansett_turkey