They are sex-linked and thus were important at the beginning of this century for producing poults that could be sexed at hatching.
Cross-breedings of Auburn toms and Bronze hens were done to produce Bronze toms and Auburn hens thus making it quite easy to sex poults by color at hatch.
However, when breeding Auburn turkeys together, auburn-colored poults will be produced in both sexes.
At day of age, the Auburn poult resembles the Bronze but with black stripes replaced with a red-brown coloration.
In the adult bird, the bronze pigmentation is also replaced by a red-brown color.