What Is the Red Thing on a Turkey? Snood, Wattle and Beard

The snood: the flap over the bill

The snood is a fleshy, finger-like growth that starts on the forehead, just above where the bill begins. It is made of erectile tissue, which can fill with blood. When a tom is relaxed, alarmed or simply walking around, the snood is often contracted into a short, upright nub. When he is excited, especially while strutting for hens, it fills with blood, lengthens and hangs down over the bill, sometimes dangling well below it.

The snood is the most distinctive feature of a male wild turkey’s head. Hens have one too, but it stays small and never droops in the same way.

In English, the same word “snood” is also used for a net or band that holds back the hair, but on a turkey it means only this fleshy ornament.

The wattle and caruncles: the skin under the chin

Below the bill hangs the wattle, a flap of bare skin under the chin and along the front of the throat. Further down the neck are caruncles, rounded, wart-like bumps of skin that are especially large and bright on adult males. The pattern of caruncles differs from bird to bird and may help turkeys recognize one another.

Like the snood, the wattle and caruncles are full of blood vessels and change color quickly. On a displaying tom, the whole head and neck can shift between red, white and blue within seconds. Bright red usually means high blood flow and excitement, while the most intense displays may turn the head almost white.

Why the snood and wattle change color

Turkeys have no feathers on most of the head and neck, so the skin itself acts as a signal board. Blood vessels close to the surface can widen or narrow, changing the color, and the tissue of the snood can fill or drain to change its length.

These changes reflect the bird’s state. A tom that is courting or confronting a rival puffs up his feathers, fans his tail and flushes his head red, while his snood lengthens. A tom that is frightened or losing a fight pales, and his snood shrinks. Hens and other males read these signals at a glance.

Bare, colorful skin has other uses too. Like the bare heads of vultures, it can help a bird lose heat in hot weather, a role explained in why are vultures bald?.

Do hens prefer males with long snoods?

Research suggests they do. In studies of wild turkeys in the 1990s, the biologist Richard Buchholz found that hens given a choice between males tended to prefer those with longer snoods. Snood length was linked to the health of the male: toms carrying fewer intestinal parasites tended to have longer snoods.

Snood length also seems to matter between males. In the same research, toms tended to avoid challenging rivals with longer snoods, and the male with the longer snood was more likely to win contests. That makes the snood an honest signal: a long, bright snood is hard to fake for a sick or weak bird.

This matches a wider pattern in birds. Bright ornaments such as the peacock’s train, the rooster’s comb and the turkey’s snood often reveal a male’s condition, which helps females choose a healthy partner. The snood is shown off together with gobbling and strutting, as described in why do turkeys gobble?.

The beard and spurs

Two other features complete the tom’s “costume”. The beard is a tuft of long, stiff, hair-like feathers that grows from the middle of the breast and hangs down like a tassel. It is not hair: it is made of specialized feathers that keep growing throughout the bird’s life. A one-year-old male’s beard is up to about 13 cm (5 in) long, while older toms often have beards of 23 cm (9 in) or more, although the tip can wear off when the beard drags on the ground. About one in ten hens also grows a beard, usually thinner and shorter.

Spurs are sharp, bony points on the back of each lower leg. Toms use them as weapons when they fight, kicking and jumping at rivals. Spurs grow longer and sharper with age, so together with beard length they give a rough idea of how old a male is.

Snoods on domestic turkeys

Domestic turkeys, which descend from a Mexican subspecies of the wild turkey, have the same snood, wattle and caruncles. On farm toms these can grow very large, and the head colors change in the same way during display.

In both wild and domestic birds, the snood is a reminder that the turkey’s odd-looking head is not decoration for its own sake. It is a living signal that tells other turkeys how healthy, excited or confident a bird is.