Originally Posted By: bullet355
I would like to hear your thoughts on the bird I killed this morning. He has the amber tips like shown in the early pic but about half way up ( or down depending on how you look at it ) his beard the is a amber band about a half inch wide. So what does that tell you about his age? He had a 10 1/8" in beard and weighed 21.5#.


The amber stripe in the middle is "beard rot". It is a melanin deficiency that causes that section to not have melanin. It is more brittle and usually breaks off, leaving the small stub of a beard. You occasionally see them like you described that did not break off.