In this manner, turkey vultures can fly without much flapping of the wings for up to six hours. Or, we may see them circling high over an area where the gases, most notably ethyl mercaptan, emitting from decaying carcasses, and used to give odor to odorless and potentially dangerous gases like propane , signal the presence of food.
Turkey vultures are related to black vultures, yellow-headed vultures and condors, and received their name, by the resemblance of their feather free heads and dark-feathered bodies to wild turkeys. Turkey vultures are also more closely related to storks and ibises than raptors.
Slightly larger than their more southerly cousin, the black vulture, which, with warming climate, is beginning to show up in the southern Adirondacks, the turkey vulture rarely kills its own prey, preferring to eat road kill, fish which have washed up on shore or any deceased creature whose carcass has not begun to putrefy. Yes, there are actually carcasses that are too putrid even for vultures, and attract a whole different group of scavengers!
Also, vultures prefer the carcasses of herbivorous animals over those of carnivores. One way in which raptors differ from turkey vultures is that raptors have a very limited sense of smell, which is why Great Horned Owls, for example, eat skunks. Smells are processed by the olfactory lobe of the brain, which is larger than normal in turkey vultures.
Old world vultures have no sense of smell, but, like turkey vultures, have very acute eyesight, which they use to locate carcasses. This is an example of convergent evolution, wherein two creatures who are unrelated, but evolve in environments which are distant, but share similar opportunities, i. The African vulture lives in an open area where it is easy to spot carrion from the air, while the turkey vulture lives in areas which include dense canopy, so smell becomes a key advantage.
Since a vulture spends so much of its life with its head inside the carcass of an animal, natural selection has gradually removed the feathers from the head, as feathers would accumulate bacteria and bits of putrefying flesh. Vultures have no syrinx, the vocal organ found in birds, so their vocalizations are limited to hisses and grunts.
Also in distinction to raptors, turkey vultures have weak, almost flat feet, which can be used to stand on carrion, to keep it from shifting as they pick and tear at it with their short, ivory-colored beaks. As graceful as they appear when circling or gliding, the turkey vulture is quite awkward on the ground, alternately hopping and walking, and takeoffs are clumsy and laborious.
A surprised vulture defends itself by vomiting up a noxious stew of undigested material, often emptying its crop, and often making it lighter to enable takeoff, while its pursuer may be distracted by the free meal offered by the vomited material. I had walked since dawn and lay down to rest on a bare hillside Above the ocean.
I saw through half-shut eyelids a vulture wheeling high up in heaven, And presently it passed again, but lower and nearer, its orbit narrowing, I understood then That I was under inspection. I lay death-still and heard the flight- feathers Whistle above me and make their circle and come nearer. I could see the naked red head between the great wings Bear downward staring. These old bones will still work; they are not for you. I tell you solemnly That I was sorry to have disappointed him.
Top photo of turkey vulture by Brenda Dadds Woodward. They've been rehabbing and releasing wild animals for over 45 years, specialize in predators, keep wolves as the cornerstone of their educational program, and have lived in the Adirondacks for the past 20 years. The Adirondack Wildlife Refuge became a non-profit about 10 years ago. Visit www. Very informative and interesting. I saw once three turkey vultures lined up on the top of the barn spread eagle and wondered what they were doing.
It was quite a sight. Thank you for all the facts and fun tidbits! Very interesting life is…the individuality in species, survival instinct, all of the interesting characteristics.
The beauty! Very spectacular birds, saw a roost of about 18 in a tree near South Bay once. Ed from Hastings and new Zealand? Despite their ravenous appearance, vultures actually have relatively weak wings, though their wingspan extends to more than 6 feet. Rather boggle some, their wings do not considerably aid it in flight. However, the large surface area of the wings, forming a wide V, as the vulture opens its flight feathers, enables it to soar high up in the sky for longer durations.
Reaching a high altitude, the broad wingspan of the vulture allows it to cover a large area. Soaring in the sky peacefully, rarely flapping its wings, the keen sense of smell and sight lets the bird explore a substantial area of the ground in its diligent hunt for food.
Sighting food immediately might be challenging for the bird, hence requiring ample time amidst the air to locate a delectable treat. While floating in the air, the buzzards keep monitoring the behavior of other vultures around. This helps them get a signal if other vultures have found a source of food or a new thermal has been located to help them in flight. Birds that soar in the air without flapping their wings use a distinct mechanism to become airborne.
They float on what are referred to as thermals. Thermals are updrafts of air formed by the air being heated on the ground level and gradually rising to a higher altitude.
As the air is heated, it floats up in bubbles or pockets of air, resulting in the formation of ascending air currents. These air currents greatly aid the buzzards to fly at high altitudes. Once they rise on these air currents, the buzzards float or soar, typically in a circular formation, this helps them stay in alignment with the stream of the air. However, what we observe from the ground is an entirely immaculate picture of the vultures surfing fluently in the sky, as they aviate around in circles, covering a large area.
In reality, they are gliding effortlessly on a potent updraft of warm air, floating on it as it ascends into the sky. Check out this Huicocy birding scope to get a seamless view of the vultures circling the sky. This HD spotting scope provides a powerful zoom magnification that can be continuously zoomed from 20x to 60x, making it easy to narrow the distance between you and the target.
Flying around in circles on the thermal, the buzzards search the area for some food. To move to a new location, they need to find another layer of air currents.
Vultures like the Turkey Buzzards typically use their vigorous sense of smell to locate a source of food. Their sharp eyesight plays a secondary role in finding food. Vultures have a peculiar sense of smell, having the ability to sniff carcasses from up to a mile away.
As soon as the buzzards find their potential meal on the ground - usually in the form of carrions or rotten animals - they would first circle above the area before swooping down to eat. By doing so, they ensure that the land is safe from predators for them to drop down and ravenously enjoy their meal. As soon as other buzzards in the flock see one of them descending down, they get the signal of the availability of food in the area. Following it, they all land on the ground, circle around the feast and enjoy it together.
Vultures are typically found in massive flocks, as they airborne on the solid thermal waves. Quite often, there is at least one or more red-headed Turkey vulture found amidst the flock of a relatively large number of black vultures.
Whilst Turkey Vultures use their phenomenal sense of smell to detect the scents of rotten food, the Black vultures are a completely different case. Incapable of detecting any smell, the Black Vultures rely on their keen sense of sight, hence flying at high altitudes to find some rotten carcasses when foraging for food.
Turkey Vultures, on the other hand, soars far below to catch the odor of the carcasses. Turkey Vultures are known to use their profound sense of smell to search for their food. Gliding in the air on the lower thermals, they are at quite a downscale altitude relative to their Black cousins.
Whiffing as it glides, the vulture cautiously smells around to detect the stench of any dead animal around. Above the Turkey vultures are the Black ones, who are just wandering around in circles aimlessly, simply keeping an eye on the Turkey vulture, disencumbering themselves from the job of looking for food.
Many times buzzards gorge on animals killed by cars on the highway and are killed themselves as a result of being too full to move quickly. Dead skunks are a favorite food of buzzards, possibly because of their strong odor. They will eat snakes when available. Sometimes one can see a buzzard flying through the air with a snake dangling in its grasp. Any dead animal is fair game to a buzzard, though no other animal will eat the dead carcass of a buzzard, not even another buzzard.
When they aren't busy flying or eating, buzzards have to have a tree to sit and rest on and to roost on at night. Because of its large, clumsy wings a buzzard must find a dead tree or one bare of obstructions. In early spring there is no problem finding a bare tree to land in, but later, as the leaves come out, buzzards have to find a dead tree. Often since there are only a few dead trees that remain standing in a buzzard's territory, many buzzards, who are not naturally gregarious, must all roost together in the same tree.
These trees may be called buzzard trees. Many times one can find buzzards on a dead tree early in the morning with wings outstretched waiting to feel the first thermals, which usually start about eight or nine o'clock. Many people picture buzzards as dirty, nasty animals, but actually they are not. It is their food which is repulsive to most people, as they eat only dead and partially decomposed food. They play a very important role, getting rid of dead animals and controlling disease.
By removing dead carcasses, they remove the diseases and bacteria. Also, the buzzard itself is a cleansing unit. Its bare head is designed so that any germs that remain on its head are baked off by the sun. As the food goes through its system, the digestive juices kill the infections that may be in the flesh. Since their urine is a completely sterile fluid, they urinate on their feet to cleanse them. Buzzards are extremely long lived. Most live to be fifty, but records exist of one old buzzard living to be a hundred years old.
I wonder. Is that where the term "old buzzard" came from? Who knows, but if someone ever calls you an "old buzzard," don't take it as an insult. Buzzards are interesting, useful and sometimes beautiful birds. They spend their lives quietly doing their job and bothering no one.
Not just everyone has all of these qualities! When I was five or six years old we moved from the city to a town near my grandmother's farm, where I saw a buzzard for the first time. As I spent the summer with my grandmother I became fascinated with their soaring flight and curious habits. I wanted to know more about them and to see them up close, so I decided to catch one. At about this age I was always scheming to do something neat, like finding a new way to get the farm dog to pull my wagon, so a new and wonderful plan to catch a buzzard developed quickly.
I knew a great deal about buzzards in those days --that they flew around looking for food, their food had to be dead, and that dead food was still. I put my plan into action on a sunny June day on the top of a bare hill. Lying down in a comfortable spot I readied myself, became very still and waited.
And waited I stayed there in the grass for an eternity, two whole hours, before I realized that something was wrong with my plan. I got up dejectedly and started home, scratching at bites I'd acquired from lying in the weeds. As I tried to figure out what went wrong a rabbit jumped in front of me, and then dashed into some bushes.
I sure thought it was cute but I didn't get a very good look at it. So I decided to catch it. I had the best plan
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