Here’s some trivia for Turkey Day.

Did you know you can determine a male turkey’s health and his success with the ladies by the length of his snood?

What’s a snood?

On humans it’s a large-mesh hairnet worn by women, or …

… a beard snood worn by men.

But on turkeys the snood is the piece of flesh that dangles from the male turkey’s forehead and droops over his beak.

Here’s a Wikipedia diagram of the male turkey’s anatomical ornaments:
1. Caruncles, 2. Snood, 3. Wattle (Dewlap), 4. Major caruncle, 5. Beard

The two wild turkeys at top are displaying to females.  Which one has the best snood?  I can’t tell but the females can.  Click here to see how the ladies reacted.

(photo credits:  two wild turkeys by Cris Hamilton; women wearing snoods from Wikimedia Commons; man wearing a beard snood from sales page at Creeds UK; wild turkey diagram from Wikimedia Commons. click on the images to see the originals)