What species of Turkey is this?

[ranchdog]

I am not much of a Turkey hunter so I wanted to know what breed this is as we can only hunt the Rio Grande, not Eastern Turkey. How do you tell the difference?

Here is our regs for Lee County

Turkey - Rio Grande Spring Season only: April 1 - 30. Bag limit: 1 (gobblers only).


Thanks, Ranchdog

[DTala]

top pic is a Rio hen, you can tell by the light band at the end of the tail and the overall color. Can't tell about the Gobbler in pic two. Probably all you have are Rio's. If ya had Easterns too all of the birds would end up being hybrids...
troy

[ranchdog]

ttt

[Br'er_Henry]

Don't know about the turkey but wow you've got some inches of rain...

The second one looks like a mustbedownsoon turkey... tipically found around feeders....

Good luck!

[Huntindad]

With all the water around... I'd say they were "swamp" turkeys

[ranchdog]

Yeah, it rained big time that day. I have since added some dirt to build it up but I think I am going to have more.

RD

[Rattler]

Real white tips on the tails are Merriams, or Easterns. Tan/light bron tips are Rio's

[ranchdog]

Real white tips on the tails are Merriams, or Easterns. Tan/light bron tips are Rio's

So Rattler, what do you think that hen is ? I know the picture is not the best as far as the tail area. Maybe I can take the orginal and zoom and crop it.

RD

[ranchdog]

Here is a cropped image of the tail of the hen from my game camera. I think that the orginal was a 6 MP image so maybe this will help.

Thanks, RD

[Landrover]

Merrimam on the last pic.....lots of light color!

[mesquitecountry]

merriam hen. they also have a slightly greyer feather color over their breast as well. not sure on the gobbler. but i'm sure you'll have some crossbreeding like Dtala said.

[Texastrophy]

Real white tips on the tails are Merriams, or Easterns.

Sorry to say, but Easterns have darker tips on the tail than Merriams OR Rio Grandes. Merriams are the lightest, Rio Grandes are a little darker and Easterns are MUCH darker on the tail tips.

[Les]

I have a bunch of Rios with light white tipped fans. And in Lee county, I would say it's a Rio. My Merriams fans are pearl white. Like Texastrophy said, the Easterns have a darker or rust color. My Oceolas have very rust color tips, too.

[bowmansdad]

Les knows turkeys!

[Les]

I roost with some of the best!!