Brian Callihan is a country music artist and an avid outdoorsman. In the 3-minute Facebook video below, you’ll see one of his spring 2024 wild turkey bowhunts, and he has a close call with a once-in-a-lifetime — make that MANY lifetimes — albino gobbler.

Look closely at the video and you’ll see that Brian is using a mating (bedded) hen decoy; it’s hard to see in the tall grass. Next to the hen is a standing tom decoy; specifically it looks like a wimpy Funky Chicken from Flextone. I’ve used this skinny tom decoy before and it works well. I think rival birds believe it’s a jake and not a tom because it’s so scrawny.

I’ve seen a couple of white wild turkeys during my 40 years of pursuing gobblers, but in every case they have been hens. And as I recall, they’ve always had a bit of black, brown or gray feathers on them — I’ve never seen a snow-white bird like the one showcased in the video below.

As you’ll see, Brian’s arrow hits nothing but back feathers on the tom. Brian explains that he captured two trail cam pics of the crazy-cool bird the previous fall during deer season, but this is the first time he’s seen it in person.

You’d think that a bird with such a striking and noticeable appearance would be easy to spot as it moves through the landscape feeding in ag fields and such, but evidently this tom led a secretive life. We’ll keep you updated on whether Brian has another opportunity to tie his tag to such an incredible bird.

P.S. For best viewing, click “enter fullscreen” for the video. Fast-forward to the 2-minute mark if you want to skip Brian's intro.