saw a white wild turkey today...

[Magnum Man]

it was just coming off our farm property, crossing the road... I suppose a piebald, as it was 90% white, with 10% black... was probably a chick this year, but was adult sized right now... would be interesting if it would breed next year... not a lot of turkey hunters in our neighborhood, down the road a few miles, yes, but not around our farm... sorry, didn't get a picture this morning, but you can bet I'll be keeping an eye out for it in the future...

 

[emeraldking]

Never seen a white one before...

 

[Back in the fold]

Wild ? A white wild one ? You must have a different breed , or two , back there in your neck of the woods . I’ve never seen anything other than brown ones here in eastern Montana . Hey , that reminds me . Yesterday while coming back from my doctors appointment there was a hen turkey and her nearly grown chicks crossing a busy street right here in town . Much to my surprise everybody stopped and let them do it , in both lanes , traffic lights be damned .

 

[Magnum Man]

nope, ours are all brown, and their numbers are up greatly the last several years, around here as well, & no one raises domestic turkeys, that could have crossed with a brown one, for at least 3-4 miles of here... since it wasn't all white ( albino ) I suspect a piebald, like deer with a lot of white, or a white squirrel without pink eyes...

 

[anewbie]

We used to have a white squirll that hung at the Boston park - it had black eyes so it wasn't an alibino.... it showed up in the same spot every day which is how i saw it as one of his fans dragged me over there to show me...

And a couple of years ago there was big excitement at otter creek park as they had a white deer fawn !!

You would be amazed how many people will collect on the trail in hope of spotting a white deer fawn - its siblings were normal.

 

[Innesfan]

there was a hen turkey and her nearly grown chicks crossing a busy street right here in town .

We've got one here in the Big Apple. She's been named Astoria after the neighborhood in Queens (one of NYC's five boroughs). This from the NY Times after a recent appearance in Manhattan:

 

[gwand]

There is a wild turkey in Washington DC.

 

[GaryE]

I have a bottle of... right, the birds. I've cream coloured deer here, just as I've seen piebald killies in my tanks. With the fish, it's been a developmental stage and they've gone to standard colours with age. I notice the pale cream/beige deer here has vanished, in a no hunting zone. I wonder if it's still here though, hiding in a regular coat.

 

[Back in the fold]

We've got one here in the Big Apple. She's been named Astoria after the neighborhood in Queens (one of NYC's five boroughs). This from the NY Times after a recent appearance in Manhattan:




View attachment 370954

That amazes me . To think that a wild creature could exist in a sprawling megalopolis like New York City .

There is a wild turkey in Washington DC.

Birds of a feather . . .

 

[Colin_T]

We have white turkeys in Australia, they are the domesticated farmed variety. Maybe the one roaming the streets was a cross between a wild and a white farmed variety or an escapee from a farm. It could also be a naturally occurring mutation but it won't last long in the wild because it will stand out too much. Go catch it and look after it until November or December

 

[GaryE]

Go catch it and look after it until November or December

My limited experience of wild turkeys says they'd be cuddly pets... or maybe not. Forget Godzilla meets King Kong - wild turkey meets Canada goose will do.

The other day an older man walking a Labrador retriever passed by out front, just as a V of Canada geese came in low over his head. He gave them the finger. Cross species communication.

 

[Magnum Man]

most farm raised turkeys in this country, are the white variety... but it's more than just color, wild turkeys have a more "road runner" shape, while farm raised white variety, have more of a "beach ball" look... this one had the wild shape, and I witnessed it, going from the corn field, on our property, to the neighbors corn field... white could vary well turn out to be a better color to evolve, with 100+ degree heat indexes in the summer, and snow in the winter???

 

[Innesfan]

That amazes me . To think that a wild creature could exist in a sprawling megalopolis like New York City .

She has a wikipedia page. As the song goes, "If you can make it there, / You'll make it anywhere..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astoria_(turkey)