The Turkey Vulture
The Turkey Vulture, If you’ve gone looking for raptors on a clear day, your heart has probably leaped at the sight of a large, soaring bird in the distance– perhaps an eagle or osprey.
But if it’s soaring with its wings raised in a V and making wobbly circles, it’s likely a Turkey Vulture. These birds ride thermals in the sky and use their keen sense of smell to find fresh carcasses. They are a consummate scavenger, cleaning up the countryside one bite of their sharply hooked bill at a time, and never mussing a feather on their bald heads.
Vultures lack feathers on their heads so that they can more easily keep themselves clean when eating.
The Turkey Vulture
45 Replies to “The Turkey Vulture”
https://quicksell.co/s/calibuds420/top-shelf/5li
In Bisbee we hold a celebration with a parade to welcome the turkey vultures back!
That is nice, what a wonderful thing..we need our turkey vultures.
By bird standards, this one ain’t purty.
Lol, no it isn’t…
Quite unnerving to look up in a middle of an ultra-race and see a few of these ugly-sticked creatures circling overhead. As another field clue, vultures actually rock back and forth as they glide which helps distinguish them from the raptor family from afar. Have to admire how purpose built their features are.
I bet, the park we were at in Louisiana had dozens of them flying over the campground every day, I had never seen so many in one spot as that place. Amazing how they are built, for the messy work they do. 😊
The funny thing about Turkey Vultures is that they are immune to almost every disease known, Even Squirrels!
;;
;;
Find a reason to laugh
Isn’t that something, I have come across a new squirrel I have never heard of here. An antelope squirrel, weird name, it doesn’t resemble an antelope or a squirrel at all. Matter of fact it looks like a chipmunk, they must have wanted to add one more species to the squirrel category. 😊
Did you feed it to the vultures?🤣🤣
It was to fast for that big Ole bird. 😊
Darn it all… I mean cool 😎
Not the prettiest bird on the planet, but it has a job to do and does it and I found it interesting that the reason for their bald and featherless head is so they don’t get their feathers dirty during clean-up.
Yes, amazing birds really with what they do. 🙂
No beauty queen/king there. Wow.
Yes, they are strange looking 🙂
Nice artical
https://guruabhi.xyz
I used to work in an office building all these turkey vultures would flock to and sit on the window ledges. Can you imagine sitting at your desk and seeing a vulture sitting right outside your window? 😳
That would be quite the sight. An interesting distraction from the job for sure. 🙂
A great shot!
Thank you very much 😊
Once, while birding in the local cemetery, a venue of turkey vultures soared above. I wondered which cue brought them down: the stench of rotten animals or the sight of a dead animal. So, I lie down in the grass and waited. I was disappointed nothing happened, yet, at the next Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union I mentioned my experiment. There were some chuckles – I thought, “Great! I made a fool of myself here!” – then there were some embarrassed confessions from my fellow birders that some of them tried the same thing! LOL!
Lol, I have thought the same thing. Never a fool when we are trying to figure out birds and why they do what they do. We would see dozens of them at one park we were at every time we were grilling meat. I wondered if they new that. And here is another one. At one park, we noticed when campers left their site 2 ravens would go there and check out the site on the ground, but they also went on the tables and checked out the charcoal grill. They are smarter then most people think. 😊
Corvids are amazingly intelligent!
I know that everyone thinks they are ugly, but when they are soaring in the breeze they can look so beautiful.
Yes they can, they look like they are having fun as they glide around up there.
Not a bird of beauty Sandra but of utility. Quite amazing really
They are amazing birds, just on how they are designed to do what they do. 😊
A face only a mother could love! 😉
So true Kim, 😊
<3
Thank you very much 😊
Ciao Sandra! 😀
🧡🧡🧡🧡
Thank you very much Francine
😊
What’s amazing is how small his head is compared to his big body. The nostrils are oversized and I understand why. The video is great.
Yes, it is such a large bird, quite the wing span they have. 😊
A truly fascinating bird Sandra, thank you for sharing such beautiful photos of it.
You are very welcome, they are strange looking but made with a purpose.
Unless it’s not a beauty, your pictures and the video you made are very nice.
Thank you very much Rudi. 😊
It certainly looks like a turkey alright! LOL! Thinking about Thanksgiving and if anyone has thought of if this bird is edible!
That I am not sure of, they eat a lot of scrap. I think we better leave them to that. 😊
Haha. Yes.