hey. ive been doing some looking and well i need abit of help. i got a bird last saturday and i believe its a rio grande ofbreed type. did some research and according to dnr iowa has rio grande and some meridams. here is a link to a post where my pic will be or pm me for the pic. if you could help identify that would be great.
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=1451172

If the bird is mixed it will be a Hybread , not really counted as one of the sub's because of the mixture. This happens all over where two subspecies intermix...BT

I agree with adrian about your bird.

could it be called just an eastern? i did some more looking and i think this is correct now. pretty sure its just plain eastern

I'm not a biologist, but Rio's in Iowa? I don't believe there are any in Iowa. The closest any hybrid should be to Iowa is Kansas. I couldn't see the picture but I'll bet it's an Eastern. Some Easterns have buff colored tips in their tail feathers.

Well, I live in MN and I have never heard of anyone getting anything but Easterns here, other than the occasional escaped farm bird...

I turkey hunt in Wisconsin (about 20 mi from Iowa broder) and I agree with superstrutter, it is probably just an eastern. I haven't heard of many Rio's or Merrium's in Iowa. I've shot some Easterns with lighter color tail feathers.

Looks like an eastern to me.

Iowa is mainly Easterns as I have hunted there myself.

Give me closest city and I can help you!

And take a look at this -

NWTF shows no ohter speices in Iowa.

http://www.nwtf.org/all_about_turkeys/



JW

hey ya it is an eastern bird. the dnr page i was looking at after reading again says they tried to release some rios awhile back but they didnt winter over. sry for the misadvice.