How common are these in eastern birds? I noticed a few of the pictures posted so far had some white in the center tail feathers. My second gobbler had them and Matt/Pa's gobbler had them too. Here are mine and Matt's birds for reference.
I dont think its terribly common but it looks like you can get a streak of it in a local population....this is a bird one of our landowners shot while hunting with us last year. It was shot on the exact same farm as the bird I killed this year so they may have even been brothers. His was a 2yr old and mine this year likely a 3yr old.
It seems to be fairly common. Definitely wouldn't call it rare. However, I've never seen many hens with it. Possibly because most people don't take pictures with a hens tail fan spread out.
I can think of only three birds with the barred tail feathers that have come back to camp over the last ten years, usually getting between 6-10 birds per year. I think they're neat looking, and although I don't usually keep the fans anymore, I'll probably mount a barred fan if I get another one. I got a beautiful one several years back, but the mice got to it before I did.
I would say its common. I killed a gobbler last year that had a lot of completely white wing feathers. A pgc biologist told me that even that was not very rare.
I shot one in NJ, one in 2G, one in 4c, and one in VA that all had a little white in the center tail feathers. A lot of the turkeys my friends and family have killed have had it too. It doesn't seem to be all that rare.
They've been pretty common for us, both in PA & KY. Quick count of the pics I have handy of birds we have taken showed seven toms with it, out of about 30.
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