Vulture Facts Flashcards
Turkey Vulture Apearance
Turkey Vultures are large dark birds with long, broad wings and a featherless red head with a pale bill. They have long “fingers” at their wingtips and long tails that extend past their toe tips in flight. While most of the body and forewing are dark, the undersides of the flight feathers (along the trailing edge and wingtips) are paler, giving a two-toned appearance.
Turkey Vulture Habitat
Turkey Vultures are common around open areas such as roadsides, suburbs, farm fields, countryside, and food sources such as landfills, trash heaps, and construction sites. On sunny days, look for them aloft early in the morning. In colder weather and at night, they roost on poles, towers, dead trees, and fence posts.
Turkey Vulture diet
Turkey Vultures eat carrion, which they find largely by their excellent sense of smell. They eat mostly mammals but are not above snacking on reptiles, other birds, amphibians, fish, and even invertebrates. Turkey Vultures prefer freshly dead animals, but they will sometimes wait for their meal to soften in order to pierce the skin. Thankfully, they appear to have excellent immune systems and are able to feast on carcasses without contracting diseases.
Turkey vulture behavior for food
Turkey Vultures can often be seen in the mornings standing erect with their wings spread in the sun. Up in the sky, they soar in circles, riding the thermals and using their keen sense of smell to find a fresh carcass.
Turkey vulture behavior: disturbed
When disturbed or harassed, Turkey Vultures projectile vomit. This method of self-defense serves two purposes: First, sometimes vultures will gorge themselves to the point where they cannot fly, so throwing up makes them lighter and better able to take off. Second, it will distract the animal (or person) attacking it. Vulture vomit is a very effective predator repellent.
Turkey Vulture excretion
Turkey Vultures will also excrete waste on their own legs which is why their legs are coated white. This helps to cool down their body temperature. The highly acidic uric acids in their urine also help to kill off bacteria and prevent parasites from the carcass from crawling up their legs
Turkey Vulture salt gland
Turkey Vultures have a salt gland in their nose that secretes a salty solution that runs down their beak and keeps parasites from crawling up their head when feeding from a carcass.
Turkey Vulture Impacts
The Turkey Vulture is a fairly common summer resident in Ohio, and one of the most common large carnivorous birds in North America. Unfortunately, because they feed on carcasses, they sometimes fall victim to poisons or lead in dead animals. While some people fear they spread disease, they actually do the exact opposite. The Turkey Vulture’s scavenging habits both keep the environment clean and help prevent the spread of disease.
Black Vulture Appearance
With shorter wings and a smaller tail, Black Vultures appear smaller than Turkey Vultures although their body size is about the same. Black Vultures are uniform black except for the white patches (that look like hands) on the underside of their wingtips. Their small, bare heads and narrow but hooked bills are all black as well.
Black Vulture habitat
Look for Black Vultures in open areas within forested landscapes. They typically nest and roost in wooded areas and soar above open areas to seek their food. In recent decades, Black Vultures have substantially increased their range northward and are now present in Ohio.
Black Vulture Diet
Black Vultures feed almost exclusively on carrion. This includes mammals of all sizes as well as some reptiles, birds, amphibians, and fish. In fact, sometimes Black Vultures wade into shallow water to feed on floating carrion, or to catch small fish. They will occasionally kill skunks, opossums, night-herons, leatherback turtle hatchlings, and livestock, including young pigs, lambs, and calves. They also are frequent investigators at dumpsters and landfills
Black Vulture behavior
During the day, Black Vultures soar in flocks. In the mornings and evenings, they roost together, using the communal roost as a meeting place where foraging groups can assemble and adults can reconvene with their young. Unsuccessful foragers can locate food by following their roost mates to carcasses. Black Vultures aggressively prevent nonrelatives from joining them at roosts or following them to food sources. They attack by pecking, biting, wing-pummeling, and foot-grappling. Like Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures also vomit when disturbed or harassed, excrete waste on their own legs, and secrete a salty solution from their nose (See Turkey Vulture Behavior)
Black Vulture Food Location fun fact
Unlike Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures cannot locate food using their sense of smell. For this reason, Black Vultures like to keep an eye on the Turkey Vultures. Black Vultures often soar above the Turkey Vultures, waiting for them to find some food. Once food has been located, the Black Vultures (which tend to be more aggressive) will bully the food away from the Turkey Vultures.
