I really admire how they were able to match the exact color and texture of the skin

It's an excellent morph. If I were to try it, I'd probably try copying and pasting as new layer (grain merge) for the skin. Maybe a colour layer for the colour.

it looks like they did more than one layer,because the crest texture is different from the neck,no?

The crest layer probably has it's original texture but I would imagine a lot of layers were involved.

and patience too to make it look so natural

Absolutely!

I created this one a while back. They are fun to do and really not that hard if you have the correct images.
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Wow - that's amazing Rod.

Excellent Chickoceros. Only seen one once before on a virtual safari tour in Eurafrica. lol

Definitely they did some cool texture blending for this result. I would call that talent pirate.

Nice result too Rod (though you ninja'ed me; lol).

Rod
that's amazing !

lyle,
that's great talent

With these types of images Colors>Curves tool is your friend.

Color mode layer + Curves + Patience, as said before. I would probably play with Color Balance too, in order to unify hues. Besides, I'd say you need two images with more or less same lightsources, else you'll spend some time learning how to define shapes, volumetrics, depth on a flat screen

Very good point about the light sources.

My wife goes crazy over animal morphs and saves everyone she can find. She keeps wanting me to start making them.

These would take some practice/time
black squirrel in the yard and a black panther