White or Smoke phase hen Turkey is one of the most common types of turkeys.
If you hunt turkeys long enough, you will most likely see a wild turkey displaying irregular plumage.I have hunted turkeys for 18 years and have seen close to a dozen different birds like this, including an all-white hen I harvest from a flock of wild birds in Wisconsin.
Color phases are non-traditional plumage arrangements.What are the different phases of the color?What causes them?Mark Hatfield is a NWTF Biologist.
Hatfield said that some color phases are more prevalent than others and can be more common in certain locations.Domestic turkeys and wild turkeys are known to interbreed in some instances, but do not fully explain all the color phases and variations.It is assumed that color-phase birds face greater selection pressure due to their lack of camouflage.
The NWTF has a list of the most common color phases of wild turkeys.
The smoke phase is the most common wild turkey color phase.The reason it has no brown in its feathers is due to the fact that it is a feather.White is typically the dominant tone with black and dark gray contrasting tones, especially on the back, wings and tail feathers.
Hatfield said the turkey lacks dark pigments because of the erythristic color phase.Birds lack the dark contrasts of traditional plumage.The smoke phase is more common than these.
Hatfield said that a turkey displays nearly black plumage.They have extra melanin in their feathers.It makes them look black.It is the opposite of an Albino.
All-white turkeys are often confused.When I harvest my white hen, I noticed that the eyes were not pink.
Unless they have pink eyes, all-white birds are not true albinos.There isn't a clear color-phase definition for these birds, but we know that they lack a lot of color.