Just some good info I thought might be handy!
How to Age your Gobbler.
Aging a wild turkey is at best an inexact science. Through the years, many biologists have researched techniques for aging a wild turkey gobbler in the field. After all of their research, there really is no certain way for determining the age of a gobbler once he reaches 3 years of age and above. It is possible to identify a first year bird but it is a lot more difficult to determine if a bird is a 2 year-old, a 3 year-old or 4 years old or more.
Tailfeathers.
There are several indicators used to judge the age of a wild turkey gobbler including tail feathers, beard length and spur length.
The tail feathers on a male turkey gobbler are really only useful in identifying jakes (1 year-old gobblers) from mature birds. When the tail feathers of a jake are fanned out, the middle 2 to 6 sets of primary feathers will be 2 to 4 inches longer than the rest of the feathers giving the fan a "bump" in the middle.
Jakes have the longer tail feathers because during the late summer molt a young gobbler goes through, he only replaces the middle primary tail feathers. In the second year, the tail molts in the standard adult pattern from the outside in and the gobbler will then have a full, even fan.
Once a bird reaches 2 years of age, he will have an even fan for the rest of his lifetime. There are occasions when he will lose a tail feather or get one broken off. In those cases he will quickly grow another in it's spot so it is possible to see a mature bird with an uneven, short tailfeather or two.
This "bump in the middle" tail fan characteristic is especially useful in determing the age of a strutting gobbler since you can determine quite easily if it is a mature bird or not from a long distance.
Beard Length
Beards are another variable that may be used in determining the age of a gobbler. Generally, beards grow at a rate of 4" to 5" a year and never stop growing. They also will usually get wider and thicker as the gobbler ages. Knowing this, you can be fairly certain a gobbler with a beard of less than 5" is a one year old bird.There are still exceptions to this though since mature gobblers can lose most or all of the beard to various causes.
The beard length is only partially helpful in determining the age of a gobbler because after a bird reaches the age of 2 when the beard reaches a length of 9" to 10" and it starts to wear down at the tip. When the bird feeds, the beards tip is worn by both getting stepped on by the tom and by dragging on the ground.
There are also many other variable which can affect the length of a beard including:
Growth Rate -- Some birds simply grow beards fast enough to overcome the wear factor.
Habitat -- Some geographical areas have ground which is "softer" and does not wear the beard tips as much. Swampy area birds (Osceola) generally have longer beards and spurs than rocky area birds (Merriam's).
Leg Length -- If the legs are longer (like on an Osceola) the beard will grow longer before it starts to wear at the end.
Filament Strength -- Beards with stronger individual filaments will not wear as quickly.
Thickness: -- If a beard is really thick with lots of filaments and a large circumference, it will not wear as fast as a thin, wispy beard.
Diet -- Certain foods may make a beard tougher and more wear resistant.
Climate -- Northern birds or birds in areas with high snowfalls will often lose the tips of their beards when ice builds up on them and they break off.
Disease -- Turkeys will occasionally get a melanin deficiency in their beard. Melanin is the pigment that makes the beard black and sometimes the melanin production is stopped during the growth of the beard and the beard gets a blonde or light colored streak across it. Usually the melanin production will pick back up and the rest of the beard will be black but the beard will always have that blonde streak through it. The light-colored portion of the beard is much more brittle and weaker than the black portions and the beards will often break off at that point or stop growing. Some turkeys suffering from this will have completely blonde beards.
The best research I have seen relating beard characteristics to the age of a wild turkey gobbler can be found in Lovett Williams books "The Book of the Wild Turkey" (1981) and "After the Hunt " (1996).
In these books he talks about examining the tips of the beards to aid in determining the age of a gobbler. The end of a young gobbler's beard will appear translucent amber when held up to a light and it will have smooth, rounded tips on the filaments. As the beard continues growing, the amber tip will eventually wear off and the ends of the filaments will become jagged. Thus a gobbler with a 10" beard that still has its amber tips would be a 2 year old gobbler since the beard hasn't grown enough yet to completely wear off the amber tips.
Spur Length
Spur length is generally considered to be the most reliable characteristic in determining the age of a gobbler. Spurs will still show some wear differences due to the habitat or geographical area a turkey is found but generally they keep getting longer and sharper as the turkey ages. There are also differences in spur length between the different sub-species.
Osceola's usually have the longest spurs on average of the five American sub-species due mostly to their environment. They generally live in swamps and areas with soft dirt and few rocks so they do not wear off the spur tips. Contrary to this, the western subspecies, like the Merriam's, often live in very rocky, or mountainous areas which usually means even very old birds will have spurs that have been worn off to less than 1 inch long.
The photo below shows the typical spur characteristics of some different aged gobblers.
Jakes (1 yr olds) have spurs which are usually 1/2" or less and are generally very rounded. During the spring season, jakes will range from having no more than a bump for a spur to a better defined 1/2" long spur like the one shown in the photo.
The 2-yr old gobbler has longer spurs (1/2" to 1") which are generally still straight and still very blunt on the ends.
3-yr. olds and older birds have the longest, sharpest spurs and they will also have some curve to them.
Again, spurs tend to get longer and sharper as the gobbler ages but there have been proven cases of some very old birds which were tagged and harvested 7 to 8 years later that still had spurs of only 1 inch in length.
There are a variety of differing opinions on spur length in relation to a gobbler's age so I'll present several theories here along with some research stats.
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One very interesting study, "Indexes for Aging Eastern Turkeys" by R. Kelly (1975) focused entirely on aging gobblers in Missouri. This paper shows how spur length, beard length and body weight are associated with known age Eastern gobblers.
To begin the study, a group of 50 known age gobblers were trapped as sub-adults, and fourteen "minimum known-age" gobblers were trapped as adults. The gobblers were banded and released in various locations and then were harvested in 20 different Missouri counties from 1962 to 1974. Twenty-five sub-adult birds were randomly selected from the 1973 harvest data in two counties.
Data from the harvested birds was collected and compiled, giving the following table.
Age of Birds
(Years) # of Birds Sampled Avg. Spur Length
(in.) Avg. Beard Length
(in.) Avg. Weight
(lb.)
1 25 .26 4.44 15.5
2 27 .87 9.47 21.1
3 11 1.01 9.46 21.9
4 7 1.08 9.00 22.5
5 2 1.16 10.93 23.8
7 2 1.38 10.83 23.3
9 1 1.38 10.43 20.0
"5"** 19 1.18 11.09 22.7
** - This group of gobblers had a minimum known-age of 5 years.
Length of Spurs and Beards and Body Weights of Gobblers in Known Age Classes
Source - R. Kelly - "Indexes for Aging Eastern Turkeys" (1975)
Third National Wild Turkey Symposium, p. 207
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Spur Length Curvature Sharpness Age
0" to 1/2" Straight Rounded 1 year or a jake
1/2" to 7/8" Straight Blunt 1 1/2 years (fall)
2 years (spring)
1' to 1 1/2" Slight Curve Pointed 2 to 3 years
Over 1 1/2" Curved Sharp over 4 years
Estimating Gobbler Age by Spur Characteristics
Source - Williams - "After the Hunt " (1996)
Note: These measurements are based on Florida (Osceola) birds which generally have longer spurs than Easterns, Rios etc.
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Spur Length Age
0" to 1/2" 1 year or a jake
1/2" to 7/8" 2 years
7/8' to 1" 3 years
1" and above 4 plus years
Source - Keck - "Talk'n Turkey"
Turkey Call Magazine May/June 2001 p. 104
Turkey Info.-Aging a Bird
Turkey Info.-Aging a Bird
Enjoy the Harvest!