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Turkey Vulture

Cathartes auraOrder: CICONIIFORMESFamily: Vultures (Cathartidae)

Turkey Vulture Portrait
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General

Turkey Vulture: Medium-sized vulture, mostly black with red, featherless head and upper neck. Wings are held in a shallow V in flight. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Turkey Vulture: Breeds from southern British Columbia, central Saskatchewan, the Great Lakes, and New Hampshire southward. Spends winters in the Southwest and eastern U.S. northward to southern New England. Preferred habitats include deciduous forests, woodlands, and scrublands; often seen over adjacent farmlands.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

Generally silent

Interesting Facts

  • Turkey Vultures, like other carrion birds, are protected from disease associated with decaying animals by a very sophisticated immune system.
  • Unlike most birds, they have a keen sense of smell allowing it to find dead animals below a forest canopy.
  • Like its stork relatives, it often defecate on its own legs, using the evaporation of the water in the feces to cool itself.
  • A group of vultures has many collective nouns, including a "cast", "committee", "meal", "vortex", and "wake" of vultures.


Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Turkey Vulture
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Family
Species Cathartes aura
Length26 - 32 Inches
Wingspan70 Inches

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture: Medium vulture, mostly black with red, featherless head and upper neck. Wings are held in a shallow V in flight. One of the few birds of prey that is able to use its sense of smell to find food. They are attracted to the smell of mercaptan, a gas produced by the beginnings of decay.

● Song: Generally silent

● Foraging & Feeding: Turkey Vulture: Feeds on carrion; forages by soaring, finding animal carcasses by sight or smell.

● Breeding & nesting: Turkey Vulture: One to three creamy white eggs, often marked with brown, are laid in a rock crevice, hollow tree, or fallen hollow log, with no nest materials added. Incubation ranges from 38 to 41 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Turkey Vulture: Black Vulture is smaller with dark head, and glides with wings held horizontally. Bald and Golden eagles are both superficially similar, but fly on flat wings, have feathered heads, and do not have contrastingly gray flight feathers.

Flight Pattern

Circles with wings in shallow V.
Turkey-Vulture Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Turkey Vulture: Breeds from southern British Columbia, central Saskatchewan, the Great Lakes, and New Hampshire southward. Spends winters in the Southwest and eastern U.S. northward to southern New England. Preferred habitats include deciduous forests, woodlands, and scrublands; often seen over adjacent farmlands.
BreedingMonogamous
Population
MigrationMigratory
Weight51.2 Ounces