Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs The Turkey Numbers '26

If you look back at that last side by side I just posted you can actually see the habitat change by the color difference on the left side of the state versus the right……..A lot of that brightest green you see on the left side is hardwoods……..

Probably need to add “record acorn year” to the list with “record cicada hatch” for variables that lined up just right with “major raptor die off”

No it is not. 80% of that map that is not ag fields or pasture is bright green. You are telling me that 80% of the woods are hardwoods. You are so wrong on so many points.


Any, I mean Any data you have that shows "major raptor die off"?

Hardwood forests suddenly springing up in lower and west Alabama and a major raptor die off .............

Don’t know what to tell y’all boys other than those brightest green areas are hardwoods and all you have to do is type in avian flu in Google to find all the info you want to read about it


"A severe, ongoing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreak has caused widespread mortality among North American raptors since 2021, with significant impacts on eagles, hawks, and owls. As of April 2026, The Raptor Center has confirmed hundreds of cases, with transmission occurring primarily through ingestion of infected prey. While mortality rates are high, recent research indicates some raptors are developing antibodies and surviving infection"

I’m seeing more red shoulders and coopers than I ever have literally counting 10 plus a day just driving. If I really paid attention to it it be at least twice that many.

DDT being banned and many old timers that shot em now gone, those flying cats making a strong comeback

Our neighborhood was constantly swarming with them……Its been several years ago but I was out in the backyard one day and counted 5 hawks that I could see flying around just from the one spot where I was standing…… I’ve been actively watching here lately and I’m not seeing anything like that now……A few buzzards on the morning walk earlier was it…..I actually saw a baby rabbit just a couple days ago in a neighboring backyard me and one of my sons are cleaning up……First time seeing a rabbit around here that I recall

Ahhh Google - good data

Breeding bird survey - the gold standard for bird populations since 1966, shows no decline in hawk, owl and eagle populations. There was a dip with a couple species in 2016-19 but recovery since. Certainly no "major raptor dieoff" and they have been increasing in the 2000's .

FIA data in the zone on your map (southeast AL) indicates 2,667,000 acres of pine, 667,000 acres of pine/hardwood and 2,200,000 acres of hardwood. Tell me again how 80% of your map is hardwoods

Weekly update……The counties that are doing good are still just wearing out the birds……Quite a few counties added another 10-25% just in the past week

Looks like some really good hatches the last few years 👍🏼

Those high number in northern counties are probably from half the state of TN being here the first two weeks. Every other tag on Skyline the first two weeks was from TN. The have moved their season season stupid late.

Next year TN will open April 3. Which means TN folks could still hit northwest Alabama public (April 8 opener) for a 2nd opener. Bout time Bama DNR gets their act together and standardizes WMA/public opening dates to make it all April 1 statewide.

This is the number of turkeys killed on public in Jackson by year for the time period of the data we’re using……This season is pretty consistent with what it has been being

2026……92 of 861 = 10%
2025……58 of 606 = 9%
2024…….66 of 687 = 9%
2023……71 of 632 = 11%
2022……50 of 543 = 9%
2021……93 of 717 = 13%
2020……101 of 771 = 13%

It looks like to me the biggest boom in North Alabama lines up with either side of the Tennessee River corridor……

I had originally thought that these areas that are booming are due for avian populations to rebound and harvest to swing back to a bad year………but after reading more about the flu outbreak it seems to still be an ongoing thing……Some folks may get fortunate to have more good years ahead if nothing changes……The same may also be true for the bad areas though too……If coyotes and bobcats have indeed boomed and ramped their populations up to match the new amount of prey available to them…….it may only be something like a disease outbreak that gives it any relief……If yotes keep having an inflated amount of rodent food available because raptors arent around to consume them then I assume the yotes will keep having an inflated population density.

Damn……..you know that very well may explain the deer population decline that everyone has been telling me about during deer season…..Its potentially an increase in fawn mortality caused by an increase in yote density

On that same note……I saw a second rabbit last night in the back of the neighborhood sitting under a street light……After seeing zero in the last five years that’s two now in just in the last few days……Also no raptors on this mornings walk again……Just a buzzard eating a squirrel somebody had rund over

Not to alarm anyone but this actually has the potential to go really bad for these bottom right counties if the avian flu situation doesn’t correct itself for several more years…..If rabbit populations start booming as well without raptors around to eat them then that will just be that much more extra prey for yote populations to boom on along with rodents…….This has the potential to be a decade long cycle (maybe more) where turkey populations in the bottom right corner are driven down to some really low levels due to high hen mortality ……I think it really just hinges on how this avian flu cycle works out…..As of right now it looks to be in full effect where I’m at

Turkeys are highly susceptible Avian Bird Flu. If it was killing raptors, dont you think that it would have decimated the turkey population in those same area where it was concentrated too? Especially given that turkeys are social birds and everyone in Alabama has feed out somewhere close to concentrate them.

Not sure what to tell you bud.......Y'all will have to argue with Google I guess


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-90806-6

" The current global outbreak of HP IAV (H5Nx) has had an unprecedented impact on wild birds globally. In North America HP IAV H5N1 (HP H5N1) was first detected in late 2021 and rapidly spread through migratory flyways. It was first documented in Minnesota and the upper Midwest in late March 2022. In North American wild birds there have been large scale mortality events with more than 9,300 reported infections in over 190 species and sustained transmission continuing over multiple waterfowl migration seasons. Reported wild bird detections are likely a significant underestimate of the impact on wild bird populations, as not every individual in a mass die off is tested and reported, and not all wild birds that succumb to this virus are found or tested"

This theory actually makes a lot more sense as to why the overall deer population would be so down on some of these big plantations ……Hunters shooting bucks on small properties makes sense for why buck quality would have taken a hit but I was really still scratching my head with the doe populations also being down across thousands of acres of high end land……Yes we did ramp doe harvest up by 50% in a lot of these counties a couple years ago but that alone shouldn’t have tanked the populations the way some big properties have reported…..However, increasing doe harvest combined with a boom in coyote density perfectly explains it

A lot of these properties have likely become ground zero for a sustained coyote boom……and that’s why the middle of this map is also ground zero for folks suddenly wondering what happened to the deer population