Wild Turkey

This is a large tail feather from a Wild Turkey. The bird itself is a massive ground-dweller with a bald, colorful head and a heavy body. In males, these feathers are fanned out during courtship displays to attract females.

Dark brown to iridescent black base with distinct, horizontal buff or white terminal barring. The tip shows a dark subterminal band followed by a lighter fringe. The iridescence can appear copper or green in direct light.

Primarily pennaceous and stiff throughout the vane to provide structural support for the tail fan; plumulaceous (downy) only at the very base near the calamus.

Texture is coarse and stiff. The surface is somewhat matte on the white bands and glossy/oily on the darker sections due to melanin and structural iridescence.

Large size, thick white rachis, and the distinctive 'turkey barring' of alternating dark and light horizontal bands.

Mixed hardwood and conifer forests with open clearings, pastures, or agricultural fields for foraging.

Native to North America; found throughout the United States, southern Canada, and parts of Mexico.

Generalist omnivores that disperse seeds and provide a significant food source for large predators like bobcats and coyotes.

Domestic Turkey (feathers often have pure white tips), some large raptors (but raptors rarely have such thick, white, circular shafts).

The Wild Turkey was Benjamin Franklin's preferred choice for the national bird of the United States because of its courage and native status, over the Bald Eagle.

Good. The vane is mostly intact, though there is some minor separation of barbs (zippering) visible near the mid-section. No significant feather mite damage evident.