Turkey Vulture    Cathartes aura

This majestic black bird, with its red, featherless head, is classified in the same family as storks and flamingoes.  It is sometimes grouped into discussions with birds of prey because of its diet.  Turkey Vultures rarely capture their own prey, but instead eat road kill and naturally deceased animals.  They have weak feet and dull talons, which make killing nearly impossible. 

Because of their habit of eating animal carcasses, many have dismissed the turkey vulture as a dirty or disease infested bird, but the opposite is actually true. The turkey vulture’s digestive system houses enzymes and acids capable of killing most bacteria and viruses that pass through it.  Feces have been tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and found to contain no diseases.  Regurgitated pellets consisting of hair, bones, and plant matter have also been tested, and have returned negative results for disease.  The featherless head serves to protect the body from bacterial infection by eliminating a place for bacteria to collect while eating.  Since these birds often place their heads into the bodies of deceased animals, exposure to skin rather than feathers makes for a much more sanitary meal.  Turkey Vultures will spend up to 3 hours per day preening their feathers, and have been observed bathing in water whenever possible.

Turkey vultures are social animals, and have been observed roosting in groups of 50 or more.  This large group will take roost in a tree at nightfall, often a tree that has been used for several generations (maybe 100 years or more).  Because turkey vultures rely mainly on their acute sense of smell to find food, their senses of sight and hearing are not quite as well developed as in birds of prey (i.e. hawks).  For this reason, they have a difficult time travelling after dark.

When a turkey vulture finds a meal, it will gorge itself, possibly with 5 lbs ofr food or more.  After a large meal such as this, it may too heavy to fly, and very susceptible to attack by predatory animals like coyotes, bobcats, bears, and even domestic dogs.  To avoid attack, the turkey vulture will regurgitate in self-defense toward whatever it determines as a threat. This defense mechanism actually serves two purposes: 1) warding off predators by offending their sense of smell and temporarily blinding them, 2) expelling some of the ingested food in order "lighten up" for an easy escape.  Turkey vultures have also been known to roll over and play dead as a defensive maneuver.

Turkey vultures have been sometimes referred to as "nature's garbage men", as they clean up most of the carcasses left by motorists on roadsides (i.e. raccoons, skunks, opossums), and eliminate the spread of disease by devouring these dead animals.