It is thought to derive from birds taken to Britain from Spain, where they had arrived with Spanish explorers returning from the New World.

[11] According to the Chronicle of the Kings of England of Richard Baker of 1643, this was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Henry VIII, or about 1524.

[8] Blackbirds had occasionally been seen among New World flocks of wild birds; European breeders selectively bred for this colour.

Cross-breeding of some of these with Meleagris gallopavo silvestris, the Eastern sub-species of the wild turkey, led to the later development of the Bronze, Narragansett and Slate breeds.

[9] A 1998 census conducted by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy found that only 200 Black Spanish turkeys remained in the United States, which just 15 different breeders were raising.