Rooster or Hen

My guess would be a hen. Could be the equivalent of a bearded hen turkey, just a genetic or hormone imbalance. Strong looking hen body with somewhat rooster head.
 
To me the only thing on the head and body that resembles a hen is the wing. Everything else says "Rooster" , e.g (white ring on the neck, dark head, breast feathers and tail feathers). The lack of a spur is also interesting though.... androgynous ????
 
It was shot today (Christmas) in ND - way past the point in the season when I might normally see a rooster colored similar to this. I saw the green head and the orange color on a crossing shot. More straight away and I don't I could have shot. It made no noise.

The bird also had fat on it, which I don't think a young rooster would have. I tend to believe it is some kind of hen with some rooster coloration.
 
Bruce Jenner's sibling?
 
I killed a turkey last season that had zero spurs even though it had an 8+ inch full beard. When i say no spurs , there were no bumps or anything on the back of the legs. Slick red scale. It had some interesting wing color too , more brown than normal. Gobbled its head off though! Neat bird you shot. Where bouts in ND?
 
That's a neat bird. Thanks for sharing your photos.

According to Robertson (Biologist/author PHEASANTS) this bird is a hen. At some point her ovaries were damaged. The result of such damage is the hen pheasant taking on rooster characteristics.

I had this one come in last fall. Similar situation with both hen/rooster characteristics.

hen/rooster plumage by https://www.flickr.com/photos/151633916@N05/
 
I have seen these referred to as Hermaphrodite pheasants. I have seen one other - that I passed because I thought it was a hen but a buddy shot it and got it mounted.
 
We saw quite a few similar birds in NW Kansas this fall. All had more "rooster" coloration than this one, but little or no indication of a spur. A few had a spur "bump", one had no spur at all. They were physically smaller and had little or no tail development. My guess is that they were from a very late hatch. Little or no chance of surviving the winter. I normally dress the bird leaving one leg for sex identification. These I left the head on.
 
Saw one in Central ND a few years back that was mostly white (or super light brown) with the head and face color of a rooster. Came up between two of us. Before I could ask the other guy what that was , he asked me! It flew very awkwardly , makes me think it was defective or very under developed.
 
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