Gobbler
by D Hackett
Title
Gobbler
Artist
D Hackett
Medium
Photograph - Digital
Description
Gobbler by D Hackett
While exploring Cumberland Island I came across a flock of wild turkeys, males and females. They were not afraid of me, in fact they walked up to me seeming to enjoy having their pictures being taken.
Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green legs. The body feathers are generally blackish and dark, sometimes grey brown overall with a coppery sheen that becomes more complex in adult males. Adult males, called toms or gobblers, have a large, featherless, reddish head, red throat, and red wattles on the throat and neck. The head has fleshy growths called caruncles. Juvenile males are called jakes; the difference between an adult male and a juvenile is that the jake has a very short beard and his tail fan has longer feathers in the middle. The adult male's tail fan feathers will be all the same length. When males are excited, a fleshy flap on the bill expands, and this, the wattles and the bare skin of the head and neck all become engorged with blood, almost concealing the eyes and bill. The long fleshy object over a male's beak is called a snood. Each foot has three toes in front, with a shorter, rear-facing toe in back; males have a spur behind each of their lower legs.
Male turkeys have a long, dark, fan-shaped tail and glossy bronze wings. As with many other species of the Galliformes, turkeys exhibit strong sexual dimorphism. The male is substantially larger than the female, and his feathers have areas of red, purple, green, copper, bronze, and gold iridescence. Females, called hens, have feathers that are duller overall, in shades of brown and gray. Parasites can dull coloration of both sexes; in males, coloration may serve as a signal of health. The primary wing feathers have white bars. Turkeys have 5000 to 6000 feathers. Tail feathers are of the same length in adults, different lengths in juveniles.
Males have one spur on each leg, which is composed of an enlarged scale overlying a conical core of bone fused to the tarsometatarsus (a compound bone between the tibia and the toes of a bird's leg, formed by fusion of the tarsal and metatarsal bones). Adult males also have a "beard" on their chests. The beard is a patch of modified feathers in which the vanes are absent and only the shaft remains. Caruncle, wart-like swellings on the head, develop on the males during the breeding season as an adornment to attract females.
Males are polygamous, meaning they mate with several females. Each spring the male performs a courtship display to entice females. This involves spreading his tail feathers into a fan similar to that of a peacock, drooping and rattling his flight feathers and strutting
Uploaded
July 2nd, 2016
Statistics
Viewed 520 Times - Last Visitor from Fairfield, CT on 03/25/2024 at 7:29 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet