Again, thank you for your replies here.
Yes, until today I fully believed Sam was a pheasant. It wasn’t until I saw a turkey hen with babies crossing the road that I noticed the distinct similarities and consulted Google. This whole time I have thought the little bump on his nose was a weird growth.
I should have mentioned in my original post...on Sunday I allowed Sam a couple hours in his outdoor flight pen (because I believed him to be a pheasant and thought I was supposed to be doing so, as the plan had been to release him at 16 weeks to the wild). Anyhow, while in the pen, he was either attacked or somehow got caught up on something and lost a 1” x 1.5” hunk of flesh off his upper back. I thought for sure he was going to die, but I’ve been caring for his wound and trying to prevent infection, and he seems to be healing well and still growing.
So not only do I have an illegal wild pheasant who is actually a turkey, but he (or she?) is injured as well. I checked for DNR sanctioned wildlife rehab centers in a 3-hour driving radius around here and found nothing that will accept turkeys. Sam is here to stay I guess.
