The present invention provides novel isolated nucleic acids that comprise an avian nucleic acid sequence comprising a ovomucoid gene expression control region. The ovomucoid promoter region of the present invention will allow expression of an operably linked heterologous nucleic acid insert in a transfected avian cell such as, for example, an oviduct cell. The isolated avian ovomucoid of the present invention may be operably linked with a selected nucleic acid insert, wherein the nucleic acid insert encodes a polypeptide desired to be expressed in a transfected cell. The recombinant DNA of the present invention may further comprise a polyadenylation signal sequence. The present invention further includes expression vectors comprising an isolated avian ovomucoid gene expression control region of the present invention, and transfected cells and transgenic avians comprising the expression vectors.