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Has anyone ever seen this before?

K

Kat

Guest
We just got a scanner, so I thought I'd show a pic of 2000s gobbler, my biggest bird ever. I was curious if you guys have ever seen beards this light? I figure he went grey because he was old. He was huge, his beards look small in the picture but they are 10 1/4 and 6 inches. Anyway, just thought it was interesting and I'd share.
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It appears as though he has a melanin deficiency which makes the beard black (melanin). Some people that shoot birds that have beards that look cut off think that they freeze or have been cut off when in fact the reason is this deficiency. Aging is done by spur length.

I am sure Shredder can shed some more light on it...
 
I guess that explains it Limb... my brother shot a bird this year with a 11 1/2" beard but in the middle it looked like someone had cut it off. I had no clue what happened to it to make it look like this. Thanks for the insight
 
Intereresting stuff Limb.

Thats a pretty cool looking turkey Kat.

I still do not get the magazine post from the whitetail forum.
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limb.........do you have any more info on that melanin deficiency? if it makes the beard grey I think I got a bad case of it.
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Here is some additional info regarding melanin. Tyrosine is an aromatic amino acid that animals synthesize from phenylalanine (another amino acid). Tyrosine is then converted to melanin. Copper is known to be required for the transformation of tyrosine to melanin. Diets deficient in phenylalanine or copper cause the reduction of melanin production. Turkey farmers are able to raise birds with the same colorings as zebras - stripes or bars of black and white or brown and white. As the turkeys’ feathers grow and molt, the farmers alternate feedings to produce copper deficiency and then copper sufficiency...copper deficiency...copper sufficiency...copper deficiency...copper sufficiency, as the feathers go through their growth cycles. A bar-like effect is the result.
 
Could this explain an off colored bird that madisonb&c tried very had to take this year? I only saw the bird twice and very briefly, but it was colored off white and liver over its whole body.
 
Thats really interesting. But I wonder, if one bird had a deficiancy, wouldn't the other birds in the area have it too? He seemed healthy enough - he was strutting for a bunch of hens when I shot him. Another reason I thought he was very old was because he had a real thick layer of greasy yellow fat built up under his skin. I've killed six turkeys and have never seen it look like that before.
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Could the white coloring be a fungus? I saw on a show recently a bird that had a short beard and the ends of it were reddish colored and they said it was a fungus. It might be something completely different. Just wondering.
 
To tell you the truth...I really don't see anything abnormal about those beards. I have shot many that are greyish like the ones that are in the photos above. Several others are coal black. Most of the grey ones are from 3 year old birds and they don't appear to have any fungus.

Also, if you hold up the beard of a 2 year old or a jake to a lighted background you can see the reddish color of the strand tips. A 3-year old or older beard will have fewer or lesser (if any) of the reddish hue, and this is just a normal feature as many of you probably know. This may be the "red fungus" that was mentioned earlier? I know there are funguses that can get into a beard, but I thought I would post this info as well.
 
GunnerJon,
I tend to agree. The only thing about Kat's bird is that the grey extends so far and it appears that there is a reddish band (where it looks like it is ready to break)...it is tough to tell...but I would have to agree that most of mine that I have shot have had grey towards the top.
 
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