theres a city ( very small by any other states standards,lol) called Cranston here in R.I. A few years back a small flock of turkeys found them self’s somehow running around the back streets and neighborhoods there and have managed to do quite good for them self’s! There’s not really any predators there to get em besides traffic or the rare coyote or fox so their numbers have grow to a flock of close to 40 birds that run around town and block traffic like they own the place,lol. Anywho I was driving with my cousin not long ago when the whole gang strolled by and I noticed the nice coloration one this one.
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The eastern urban turkey
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Neat coloration. When my daughter was majoring in wildlife management at university back in the '90s, the belief was that good turkey habitat required 500 acres of undisturbed woodland. No one bothered to tell the turkeys however & biologists have since learned they are highly adaptable, intelligent & curious.Child of the tides
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Jay, they call that a smoke phase turkey. I'm in southeastern mass and we had one around here just like it a few years back. I saw it almost every day until hunting season, I guess someone else beat me to it. I read somewhere that they occur about 1 in 100 birds, but I think they are more rare than that. This particular bird was the only one I've ever seen in 30+ yrs of hunting.
Matt, from Massachusetts
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Wow ! That’s really cool ! I’ve been a woodsman my whole life and have seen ALOT of wild turkeys over the years, but that’s the first one with that coloration I’ve ever seen too, noticeable enough to me to warrant the pic and post for sure! A smoke phase turkey huh? Never heard that before, that’s cool man thanks! See , learn something everyday!call me Jay, i live in R.I.
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Now that's unusual coloring from my perspective. I've been watching these critters for over 60 years and I have never seen one with that coloring - and that's from Illinois, Florida and here in Tennessee. By the way Jay, my wife's from Johnston out on Peck Hill road. Hope to get back up there fairly soon as her mother is in her 90's.Pickett/Fentress County, Tn - Any day on this side of the grass is a good day. -Chuck-
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Wild turkey have four distinct color variations from what is considered the usual plumage. They are the smoke phase, the red phase, the melanistic or black phase, and the true albinos, which are pure white with pink eyes. Although these color variations are uncommon, the smoke phase is the most frequently seen. Recessive genes or mutations account for the color abnormalities. For years some thought it was due to interbreeding with domestic turkey but that's not the case.Last edited by Havenhunter; 02-06-2018, 04:34 PM.Child of the tides
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