From what I can see using binoculars to check roosts in the early morning, we have two of these.

I am 99% sure they are not domestic crosses as 1) they definitely have a wild turkey body type, and 2) we live in a rather isolated valley in far northeastern Tennessee and the old-timers around here say there's never been anyone raising domestic turkeys.

There's no way I can tell if they are albinos or just atypical specimens as there's no way to get close to them at all--they are extremely shy. As a matter of fact, until I saw two of them roosting yesterday morning, I thought we only had one.

Thanks for looking.



Pamela
http://www.cmpasofinos.com

Plvannest, Yes that white turkey does look like the rest. Pretty cool looking! I don't see why there couldn't be a white wild turkey. But I am not an expert bird person by far so don't go by what I say. We have all white and half white & half brown deer. I have seen them! I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw them..
Welcome to the board btw!

tia

I'm glad to see you were finally able to post! As you've seen on my turkey photo page at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/birds/turkphoto.htm , many people have sent me photos of white or partial wild turkeys. Some may have domestic blood while others may just be natural mutations or true albinos. Most of the wild turkeys in the US now were descendents of the last of the wild turkeys. In order to bolster their numbers, they were interbred with domestics so many wild turkeys have some domestic blood.

The turkey in your photo may be a true albino since it's all white. I hope the two white turkeys can avoid predators including hunters as they are easier to spot (except maybe in the snow)!