What is he? Will he be staying?

[kathyinmo]

Oh, wow! A beautiful turkey came to visit ..... (I almost said, "came for dinner," but decided against it!)

What are ya gonna do with him?

A couple years ago, we had some wild turkeys that adopted our neighbor, then moved on to us. Both families fed them, and they stayed within the 5 acre area. Last winter they disappeared one by one. Some predator got them. We really enjoyed them.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

no way thats a merriam, I raise them, their primary and secondary tail tips as well as the lower back feather tips are all in white, and they have a blue purple shine to them.
Looks like all the easterns we have here, they are coppery red, but in your area, it would be a rio grande at best. Being tame is a sure fire promise that it's not a true wild bird, most likely got out from a private collecting, "wild" birds would never be that domestic, mear hint of a human and they are gone... I also am an avid turkey hunters, they dont play around with human contact.
SO,
My guest that all being said, is it's and escaped eastern, as CA if full of wild turkey keepers.

Heres some of our rios and merriams for comparison

 

[Dust Bunny]

breathtaking!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Wouldn't that have been a girl turkey? i notice all the guys have that googley skin thing hanging off their face. Too bad she flew away.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

nope, he was a tom coloring and thick beard are 100% possitive signs. Note the hens in my pics, they have feathering that runs up the back of the neck, greyer feathering and buff lacing to their breast feathers.
The face on turkeys does all kinds of stuff depending on their mood, the wattle and snood can expand and contract, change color from red to blue to white, all kinds of freaky stuff, your boy was just at a relaxed state, not displaying, or anything like that, thus the shrunk up head, probably a younder bird too, though he did have a healthy beard.

 

[The Sheriff]

He just came back for a visit but left over the back fence after 30 minutes.

 

[bamachickens]

I am not sure exactly what breed it would be, but if I am not mistaken there were several catch and release with turkeys around the US tryign to reestablish wild turkey populations that have resulted in cross-bred hybrids. If you see 2 traits in that bird, that could easily be the case.

 

[turkaholic]

When the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) and state wildlife divisions introduce trap and release birds to a new area, they determine the habitat and what race of wild turkey would be best suited to adapt. In a state as big as California, you can find Eastern, Rio's and Merriams and hybrids in between, where the ranges overlap. The more arid regions recieved Rios, and areas with abundant rainfall got Easterns. Merriams found homes in the foothills of the Sierras. But turkeys like to roam and now with hybrids running around, it can be a toss up. The only areas in the US that were kept free of Rios and Merriams were ranges that were dominated by eastern race birds, mainly because the eastern is much more a forest bird than the other two. Florida's Osceolas are confined to central and southern Florida. But even here, they cross with the eastern birds in the northern part of the state.

I think the bird that is visiting you is a Rio/eastern hybrid.

 

[fancbrd4me02]

Quote:
I was going to chime in about all the attempts to reestablish wild turkey pops in California, but I was beaten to it! What I will add is that wild turkeys of many kinds are kept here, and if they escape as this one seems to have, they can integrate into the wild populations, so he could be a mix of wild types.

 

[KOTurkeyRanch]

On the NWTF, it says only Merriams and Rio's are in California. Not sure though...