Repainted the heads on my Avian X hens

[Garrett Trentham]

Bought a pair of the new Avian X hens a couple weeks ago. A buddy of mine got one last year and I really liked it. Portable size and the body positions are much more realistic than the original Avian X hen. The only thing that didn't look 100% realistic to me was the head coloration. Too much red, the beaks were too bright. Not a big deal, but I figured I could make them better so I tried. Ya'll can judge how well I did.

Breeder Before


Breeder After


Feeder Before


Feeder After


Both decoys after touch ups




I truly believe turkeys read the head colors of other turkeys which is why I spend the two hours to fix these decoys. Who knows if it will be the deciding factor for whether or not I kill a particular bird in the future. At least I will know my decoys look as real as I can make them while I'm waiting on that gobbler to come into sight.

[RutnNStrutn]

I agree on them reading head colors. Why else would birds do that if it had no meaning? Your dekes look much better now.

[snapper1982]

 

Great job

[strum]

they look great !!  one thing I like about the newer Avians are the legs. I think it was a good move to finally put some on a decoy.

[JLH]

They look fantastic....

You and I are on the same page with this.....Color and detail is everything in the bird world, and add vision that is easily 3x what ours is....you have an animal that is looking at every aspect of the decoy....i firmly believe this is what will bring them in the few extra yds needed to put an arrow through them....also, keeps their attention on the decoy and not me.
heck, my decoys look better than most mounts!

[KYHeadhunter02]

Looks great. I was going to post a question regarding the coloration of a hens head. Why do some have alot of red like the avians? Most i have seen are very grey. I understand the variables in a gobbler.

[2eagles]

I wasn't sure about your repaint, so I did a Google search. You are right. Most of the hens faces look like yours with the make over. Good job, but I'm leaving AvianX hens hens as purchased. I have messed around with repainting a jake or two and if it makes a difference on not, I don't know, but it is fun.

[Ishi]

Looks much better. What brand of paint did you use. Did you air brush them or did you use a brush?

[Garrett Trentham]

Thanks guys.

It's hard to say exactly what causes a turkey's head to change colors. Emotion, body temperature, as well as other unknown variables can cause the change in color. It's easier to notice in males during the breeding season. When strutting with hens their heads turn vibrant red, white, and blue. When confronting another challenging male, their heads often go pale white or even solid red. Hens heads don't seem to change as much as males, but they still can show some variation.

For these decoys in particular, I was worried about paint adhesion, especially since they are quite flexible, so I went with oil based paints which adhere to petroleum based plastics better and remain more flexible after drying than water based acrylics. I used brushes, but it would probably have gone even quicker if I'd used my airbrush instead.

[albrubacker]

  Looks good!

[strutnva]

nice work

[Dr Juice]

Nice job. Good luck with them.