Answer: Snood

Turkeys have lovely plumage filled with full rich feathers, but a face that only a mother could love. Some of the many odd features that you’ll find on or near a turkey’s face are a colorful wattle, a beard (males, but also the occasional female), and a snood.

The snood is, among even the odd things found near a turkey’s face, a rather odd thing. When male turkeys are not engaging in courtship mating rituals (commonly called strutting), their snood is a small piece of flesh located above the mouth and protruding from the forehead. When a male turkey is showing off for a mate, however, the snood puffs up and hangs off the side of the turkey’s forehead.

The shape and size of a male’s snood is used even outside of courtship to establish male pecking orders, if you’ll pardon the pun. In fact, turkeys (male and female) will often attack each other, attempting to damage the snood of the other animal. Turkey farmers, in a bid to stop such behaviors and damage to their livestock, will often “desnood” their turkeys by snipping off the protrusion (as a preventative measure) when the animals are chicks.