An Unusual Strutter

I have a flock of two hens and 10 poults frequenting my woodlot. I have attached two photos from my trail camera. One of the hens seems to be confused. Can you provide your thoughts on what is going on here? – Patrick Carr, via email

Thanks for sharing the trail camera photos. That is a nice brood and seeing poults survive into the summer is encouraging given the status of wild turkey numbers. One of the hens appears to be fully molted. The other is showing strong evidence of ongoing molting, especially on the secondary wing coverts. I have two theories about what might be happening here. Before theorizing about this situation, I should note that researchers studying imprinted wild turkey poults have observed strutting behavior as early as three days after hatching, so strutting is an innate, rather than learned, behavior among wild turkeys. Strutting is a posture that serves a couple of purposes. Of course, we generally associate it with the courtship display. Many wild turkey enthusiasts have never seen strutting other than in the spring and only by gobblers. I recall showing an avid turkey hunter a fall mixed flock one October in which there were a couple of strutting gobblers. My friend was shocked as he had never seen strutting in the fall. Those displays may have been stimulated by a similar photoperiod to day length in the spring (April vs. October), or it could have been a pecking order showdown. In addition to the courtship display, strutting is a display of dominance and can be part of an aggressive threat display.

Hens generally strut in response to a strong stimulus, and it often has to do with challenging or setting a pecking order. So back to my theories. The strutter is fully molted. Molting is triggered by photoperiod and age in months and is generally pretty predictable. In brood hens, it is delayed because of the energy demands of incubation, egg laying and raising young. The strutting hen’s complete molt might suggest that she had not nested successfully and did not expend a lot of energy incubating and chasing poults around (molt was able to advance earlier). Or it could be that she was an early hatch a couple years ago, giving her a slightly earlier molt. My first theory is that all the poults belong to the other hen, and the strutter is trying to be the top of the pecking order even though she is brood-less. She is definitely an older adult hen. Another possibility is that the brood is hers and the molting hen has joined up with them but is being kept on the fringe. I lean toward the first theory.

Keep an eye on this flock. Those 10 poults just might make it to adulthood with two hens watching out for their welfare.

Send your wild turkey questions, photos and videos to turkeycall@nwtf.net for Dr. Tom to answer.