SwampCollie

Thanks for the kudos.

I am not doubting your observation about this turkey, but I would offer the following counterargument.

I have seen many white/grey/smoke color phase turkeys and they all look different In fact, the first gobbler I took a shot at back in 1983 was a smoke phase gobbler (I didn'ttouch a featherand in my excitment I'll bet I shot at him from 70 yards away). All the smoke phase ones I've seen are different and have varying degrees of "whiteness". Like a piebald deer that can be "splotchy" or mostly white with some brown mixed in or mostly brown with some white mixed in.

These color phases (with the exception of a true albino which really isn't a color phase in the truest sense),to the best of my understanding, are not pure homozygous genotypes.What I mean is thattheir DNA contains a mix of dominant and recessive genes for pigment that results in the phenotypic expression of atypical color. The albino turkey is a rare, pure homozygous recessive genotype and doesn't produce pigment at all, hence the pure white color and pink eyes and feet. The pink color is actually the hemoglobin in the blood and not pink pigment. The bronze, smoke, and black (melanistic) color phase turkeys have a mixed bag of genotypes resulting in varying degrees of color expression. In other words, some smoke phase turkeys are more white than others, some bronze phase turkeys are more bronze than others, and some melanistic turkeys are more black than others.

This turkey's feet, in my judgement, are the tell-tail sign of a melanistic turkey. The picture doesn't really do it justice, as they look as if he has been walking through black soot.The reverse coloration of the primary and secondary wing feathers are another tip, as is the tail.

He might not be as black as some melanistic turkeysso I would agree that he isn't, as you state, a "textbook" melanistic, all black turkey. I would still contend, however, that he is melanistic.

Here is an interestng link from Cornell University School of Ornithology:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/studying/feathers/color_ab