I see plenty of turkeys during bow season but never have seen too many while wearing the hunter orange in the fall so I was wondering if it has ever been determined if turkeys see color and if they can pick out hunter orange. If I didnt worry about it spooking them, I'd be wearing some of the hunter orange that has a camo breakup in it to be a little safer in the woods.
I don't know about color, but if that hunter orange is moving they see it. Any color for that matter, they're gonna pick it up when it's moving. Camoflauge is made for the consumer. If you're in a heavily hunted area, I'd wear orange going in (if it's light) and going out of the woods.
Last gun season I would have turkeys come into sight about everday day, and they'd be coming right towards me until they would see the orange I was wearing... That's my thinking anyways: because I wouldn't move and most of my body was covered by camo netting.
Good question, I'm curious also. Like Hayzer said, I don't know if it matters if your moving they're going to see you.
Turkeys Have Monocular Vision Turkeys have what is known as monocular vision, which means both eyes don’t focus on the same point at the same time as occurs with humans and many predators. A bird like a turkey is much more likely to swivel and cock its head to one side to peer at an object with just one eye. This is because each eye is looking at a different visual field, rather than working together to focus on just one object. While animals with monocular vision sacrifice certain depth and quality of vision, they gain the advantage of a much wider range of vision. They see movement at an amazingly high quality-----Dont even flinch or blink when they are getting close.
my expereince is if you are still they don't care about you much even if they can see the color. if you move they will see you no matter what. have had turkeys withing feet of me while deer hunting with a entire blaze orange jacket on and they milled around forever without ever spooking and have moved a camoflauge gun barrel about 5 inches once and had a tom pick me off and take off running. luckily he couldn't outrun the 3'' #6 but he sure taught me a lesson about turkeys eyesight.
Turkeys can see in color and Blaze Orange is really not a natural color in the timber or afield. So a wild turkey would most likely zero in on this color and give it a hard look. If you don't move the color will most likely not bother them. But turkeys are extremely skittish by nature so hard telling what one turkey to the next will do. I don't know if turkey's brains are big enough to associate blaze orange with danger from past experiences but who knows for sure. All I know for sure is movement of an unknown type signals danger to turkey birds. Jack
Yes, they see color. A basic rule of thumb for questions like this is as follows: If one sex of the species has any unusual colorations or plummage, that species sees color; otherwise what function would those colorations hold? In the bird world, all females are drab in coloration when compared to the male of the same species.
WHAT THE? "Turkey don't see color, but they can distinguish shades and patterns -- such as a block of orange in a forest of green -- so blaze orange isn't required while hunting the birds!" Julia Dixon Smith Game and Inland Fisheries spokeswoman. "It makes sense that birds can see color, Birds use color for communication and for mating purposes. If they didn't see color, there would be no reason for birds to be so colorful." Bob Eriksen, a biologist for the NWTF. op:
I imagine they can see blaze orange just fine. They can see UV too. Like some others have said, I doubt it'll really spook 'em if the orange isn't moving.
It is just funny that two professionals can have a difference of opinion on their chosen field. I think I will do it the Navy way and flip a coin,........ I go with; "but they can distinguish shades and patterns" and I will keep still like the folks on here say!!!
