# Turkey I.D.



## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

So I understand that we only have Merriams and Rio grande here in UT, but what is the easiest way to tell the difference?


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## guner (Sep 25, 2007)

Green Card


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## martymcfly73 (Sep 17, 2007)

The RIO's don't speak english and steal the merriams jobs.


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

martymcfly73 said:


> The RIO's don't speak english and steal the merriams jobs.


 :lol:


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

Okay I think this is going to be my first post that ends up getting locked :mrgreen:


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

outdoorser said:


> So I understand that we only have Merriams and Rio grande here in UT, but what is the easiest way to tell the difference?


Merriams were released down south and have white tip tail feathers. They are larger than rios.

Rios are what are mostly in utah and have darker tip tail feathers.

Then throw in the fact i think half of the birds are inbread anyways so its any ones guess to what you actually shoot.


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

SW -- inbred? OK, I guess I'll go for that!


(most likely, the term "hybrid" should have been used)

The rio's typically like "river bottom" type habitat, while merriams are more of a "mountain" bird. But Utah has a lot of areas that are borderline for either one -- thus lots of hybridization.

The bars (width of the bars) on the wings are often used to distinguish one from the other (more white than black, more black than white, or equal black and white), but unless you have two distinct birds side by side, it can be very difficult to tell the difference.


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## WeaselBrandGameCalls (Aug 16, 2010)

Do an image search on Google or another search engine. There should be many examples of both birds.


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