This Turkey Tuesday is about details, in this case, the many details one can glean from an image of a wild turkey. This stunning image of a tom reveals many interesting and unique details about wild turkeys. One, turkeys have 3 eyelids – you can see the 3rd one clearly here – it’s called the nictitating membrane. It serves to keep the eye surface clean, and because toms can control blinking, they can use the membrane to protect the eye during fights. Two, look at the brilliant colors on the caruncles – the fleshy protuberances that cover the head and neck. These caruncles serve many purposes, but a major one is as a secondary sexual characteristic – toms adjust blood flow to the caruncles as their mood changes, which changes the color of the caruncles, and provides a queue for hens when assessing a tom’s fitness. Three, note the iridescence on the feathers, which is simply where a surface appears to change colors as the angle of view changes – iridescence creates shining colors on a tom. Interestingly, research has shown that toms with higher parasite loads have less iridescence, so hens can use iridescence to determine a tom’s fitness and breeding potential. Lastly, and on a related note, notice the elongated snood hanging from the top of the tom’s beak – research has also shown that snood length may be indicative of parasite loads, and that hens may select toms with longer snoods. The take home is, even a simple image of a wild turkey yields many interesting aspects if you pay attention to the details.
Pic by Austin Hanks.
