It's a Guinea hen.

If you want to see a turkey hen, take a look at Omaha Steve's shots of tom turkeys with their tails spread and turkey hens that don't seem very impressed:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027764737

As I posted, I encountered lots of turkeys today. I know what toms look like, and I never claimed this was a tom. I got several shots of the toms, too, but not nearly as cool as this shot. I live in rural country, I see turkeys all the time...I've rarely see them this close, so I took a few shots. I just assumed it was some other female turkey I wasn't familiar with.

Which seems ridiculous considering almost every American child has made turkeys for school projects!

I had one person visiting who heard one of our crows clucking. (We have a family of crows that have been here for the nearly thirty years we've owned the farm and one clucks like a turkey. I don't know if it is the same individual or if one member of the clan clucks and it is passed down.) The crows landed on the field and the visitor asked if they were turkeys. I was like but I had to be polite and explain that turkeys are much large and not at all the same as crows. He kind of freaked out at the "larger" part as he thought crows seemed huge. Apparently the only birds he'd ever seen were pigeons and sparrows in cities.

I didn't attempt to explain the difference between a tom turkey and a turkey hen to him - he was having too much trouble with the larger concept.

In a neighbors yard, there were four or five females, and three huge toms, all puffed up with the tail feathers spread out. It was really cool! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me. We have so many wild turkeys around here it is nuts, but I don't think I've ever seen so many in one day.

Last fall we had something between 9 and twelve - but no adult toms. They were all hens and immature poults, tolo young to be sure of the sex. I think they stay down in the valley where the woods are over the summer and when it's really cold.

Plus, they have never forgiven us for building our house in this field - it used to be one of their favorite places to hang out. Now they skirt around the edges instead of coming out into the open.

and I was about to say " is THAT what they look like?"
This could have been my post, I know so little about flora and fauna, but maybe my photo would not have been that arresting.

Their eggs were good too.

There were probably eight of them. I slowed down to look and the screeching started. They were obviously trying to scare me off, or warn the others. Really loud! But once I got out of my car and pointed my camera at them they seemed to mellow out. They poked about in the daffodils and let me get close to them...then they all scurried off. It was very cool.

and so funny about the identification of the bird.



How close did you get?

I usually drive with my camera at the ready, but I wasn't prepared. I had to switch lenses, that's when the flock started to scatter. This one was jumping out of the garden, probably 10-12 feet in front of me. I tried to get some shots of them in the daffodils, but they didn't turn out as nice as this.