Bird of the Week: Turkey Vulture

Photo by Charles Sharp

Species: Turkey Vulture, ​​Cathartes aura

Family: Cathartidae

Sign: Virgo

Favorite hobby: taking advantage of an all-you-can-eat buffet

Dear reader, 

There have been a few times when I notice a large shape soaring above me, and excited at the possibility of a raptor (particularly a Red-tail Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, or Bald Eagle at Reed), come to find quickly that it is instead a Turkey Vulture. While an innate disappointment can be unavoidable, Turkey Vultures are in fact a remarkably interesting bird despite their plain reputation. This vulture’s shape mimics that of raptors, though their characteristic wobbling soar when scanning for food at low altitudes sets them apart from a hawk scouting its next live meal. Vultures spend a lot of their time taking advantage of air thermals as well, which eliminate the need for wing flaps. While I haven’t seen the same in Oregon yet, in Texas I regularly saw groups of at least 20 Turkey  Vultures circling in a vertical cone that looked like a bird tornado. Despite popular belief, this behavior of patterned and high-altitude soaring is more often than not for ease of flying as opposed to an indication of a carcass being found. Finding this out in my youth, it was somehow a sweet notion that the vultures could be flying simply to enjoy themselves, or to rest after a day of hunting. Turkey Vultures are breeding inhabitants of the Northwest, and are usually around from March to June. Their name denotes their distinctly featherless pink heads, a very strange sight when viewed up close. To me, they are the closest a common bird comes to looking like a dinosaur. Their bare heads allow them to eat their primary food source, carrion, without the danger of bacterial infection from the carcasses. Additionally, their excrement is extremely acidic and they utilize it to keep bacteria off of their legs. How sanitary!

 In all seriousness, though, the evolution of their bald heads is one of my favorite animal characteristics suited so perfectly to a unique lifestyle. European, Asian, and African vultures look incredibly similar to the vultures of the Americas, but in fact the Cathartidae family does not even sit in the same clade as the Accipitridae family, or the ‘Old World’ vultures. This is a really interesting example of convergent evolution, the independent evolution of analogous structures that were not present in the common ancestor of the two families. 

Not to be mistaken with their less Northern-tending counterpart, the Turkey Vulture and Black Vulture are distinct in both their appearances and behaviors. While also having a bright red head as opposed to a black one, Turkey Vultures have light gray flight feathers along their wings, while Black Vultures have light gray only on the tips of their wings. Turkey Vultures have a higher olfactory sensitivity, and have wings more specialized for efficient, low-altitude soaring. While Black Vultures are more social in their foraging habits and often push out other scavengers, Turkey Vultures are the first vulture species at 94% of carcasses visited by both species, according to an article published in Ecosphere, ‘Using multiple data sources to investigate foraging niche partitioning in sympatric obligate avian scavengers. They are more solitary scavengers and find smaller carcasses in forested areas often, while Black Vultures are usually found at larger ones in more open areas. Scavenging becomes a pretty contentious process once the hoards have arrived: vultures do not have the organs to produce a song in the same way other birds do, so they hiss and grunt instead when threatened. Scaring a Turkey Vulture can have even more dire consequences, though, as they vomit as a defense mechanism against threats or predators. Considering their diet, this behavior is fairly effective. 

With all of their strange and a bit revolting quirks, Turkey Vultures remain one of my very favorite creatures. They are a misunderstood and underestimated member of the ecosystem that assists in maintaining a careful balance. Turkey Vultures, with the other scavengers and soil microbes and bacteria and countless other organisms, are an essential, if grotesque, facet of the cycle of life that deserves to be honored accordingly.