turkeys

[hadeva]

What's the red fleshy bit above the beak of a turkey called?

[ulrika]

A wattle.

[Moog]

You sure ulrika..ka..ka? I thought the wattle was the dangly bits beneath the beak

[Moog]

I was right... Wattle: A fleshy, wrinkled, often brightly colored fold of skin hanging from the neck or throat, characteristic of certain birds, such as chickens or turkeys, and some lizards. Not sure what the cresty bit above the beak is called.

[ulrika]

OK Moog you've caught me out. The whole of the fleshy dangly bits are commonly referred to as the wattle, but to be precise there are 3 bits. The WATTLE is the appendage that hangs from the neck, chin and throat.The SNOOD is the appendage from the base of the beak that hangs down over the neck. And, the fleshy growth on the head and upper neck is called a CARUNCLE, which is the correct answer to the original question. Incidentally, the wattle (& snood & caruncle) is only red when the bird is contented and wanting to attract a mate. When a turkey is scared or distressed it's wattle etc. turns blue. Thanks moog for encouraging me to check this out, and you can see that, as a bonus, and by way of apology, I've thrown in some extra tit bits.

[Moog]

According to my dictionary a wattle or wattles are a type of Carnucle which is an outgrowth on a plant or animal such as a fowl's wattle or a protuberance near the hilum of certain seeds which also covers the crest on a Turkey's beak but is there a specific word for the crest itself?

[ulrika]

Moog, you are confusing yourself. Forget seeds. Throw your dictionary away because it's not going to tell you everything about turkeys. You could have tried using your search engine for any of the terms in my previous answer, coupled with the word 'turkey' and all would have been explained. Use this link, which is a pdf file. See question 4, and then scroll down to the answers. http://www.teachkind.org/page/Lesson_5.pdf If that doesn't satisfy you, please forward your address and I'll bring a turkey round.

[Moog]

So you don't know then... the link you posted doesn't really help much does it, I kept the reference about seeds in to show that Carnucle is not a word specific to Turkeys as you seemd to suggest. As I understand it the red dangly bits on a turkey's head can be refered to as carnucles those below the neck are wattles which still leaves me wondering what those above the beak are called as per the original question.

[ulrika]

Now you've got me all in a dither. My earlier answer should have said that a SNOOD grows from the base of the beak and hangs down OVER THE BEAK. So that's the bit that is the subject of the question, not as I wrongly stated, the caruncle. If you check the answers again, in the link I gave, you'll find that's correct. The BASE of the beak is where it joins the head, not the underside of it. Hope that we can now agree that the answer is Snook.

[Moog]

Snood or Snook?! Looked into it a bit more and the online consensus seems to be Snood, though dictionary.com has no definition matching this.

[sft42]

See what you've started Hadeva? A little innocent question like this and it all goes off......and what bit is the comb then?

[ulrika]

I suppose that I have to answer that, sft42. A turkey has no comb. The snood is where the comb is on other types of bird The end ........ I hope.

[hadeva]

Yep snood fits in the grid, thanks folks :-)