Qld: Flap over bush turkey-chicken

AAP General News (Australia)
12-29-2006
Qld: Flap over bush turkey-chicken

Bird watchers are in a flap following the discovery of what appears to be a cross between
a bush turkey and a chook.

The greyish speckled fowl .. with the bush turkey-like tail and the head of a chicken
.. was found earlier this month near a turkey nest on the bank of a creek .. near the
western Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove.

A young male turkey was found nearby .. and is believed to be friendly with the cross-bred fowl.

But it seems they haven't produced any eggs in the nesting mound.

Ornithologist TIM MURPHY .. from bird watching group Birds Queensland has told Network
Ten News .. a cross between a bush turkey and a chicken appeared on a Queensland farm
about 20 years ago.

But Mr MURPHY says while another hybrid is not impossible .. it's extremely unlikely.

AAP RTV rad/crh/rt

KEYWORD: TURKEY (BRISBANE)

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