Overview

Black Vulture: Large raptor, black overall, short, featherless neck, pale bill, short and squared tail, long, pale gray legs and feet. Gray-black skin on head and neck is wrinkled. White-tipped wings, held horizontal in flight. Soars on thermals, must flap its wings more often than a Turkey Vulture.

Black Vulture: Resident species in much of the southeastern states from Texas to New York and Connecticut. It also occurs in southern Arizona, throughout much of Mexico and south into the tropics. Its range is expanding further into the northeast. Its preferred habitats include open country, but they breed in woodlands and thickets.

Voice Text

Generally silent

• A lone bird is no match for the slightly larger Turkey Vulture. But they are commonly found in flocks which can easily drive away the more solitary Turkey Vulture.
• The Black Vulture’s scientific name comes from korax, the Greek word for raven; gyps, which means vulture; and from the Latin word atratus, meaning to be clothed in black, as in mourning. The common name, Vulture, comes from the Latin vulturus meaning “tearer.”
• Unlike Turkey Vultures, this species depends upon its vision to find food.
• A group of vultures has many collective nouns, including a "cast", "committee", "meal", "vortex", and "wake" of vultures.

• Bald Eagle
• Golden Eagle
• Osprey
• Crested Caracara
• Turkey Vulture
• California Condor
• Common Black Hawk
• Zone-tailed Hawk

New World Vultures (Cathartidae)

ORDER

There are five families in the taxonomic order CATHARTIFORMES (pronounced fal-kath-ART-ih-FOR-meez), an order of raptorial birds that includes the Osprey, hawks, eagles, and vultures (it should be noted that these birds are alternately classified in an order named ACCIPITRIFORMES (pronounced ak-sip-it-ruh-FOR-meez) by some ornithological authorities).

FAMILY TAXONOMY

The Cathartidae (pronounced kath-ART-uh-dee) is a family composed of seven species of vultures in five genera that occur in North and South America.

NORTH AMERICA

There are five species of new world vultures in four genera found in North America. Among these are the Turkey Vulture and the huge California Condor.

KNOWN FOR

Members of the Cathartidae are known for their keen ability to locate carrion, their primary food source. In the case of the Turkey Vulture, it’s amazing sense of smell is used to find dead animals.

PHYSICAL

New world vultures are large birds with short to medium length tails, and long, broad wings adapted for soaring (the California Condor actually has the largest wingspan of any living North American bird). Being scavengers of decaying flesh, their thin, hooked beaks and feet with sort talons aren’t as strong as those of raptors that catch live prey.

COLORATION

Black is the predominant color of vulture plumage although some species show a bit of gray or white in the wings, the exception being the mostly white King Vulture of tropical regions. The heads of new world vultures lack feathers and can be black, red, yellow, or orange.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

New world vultures in North America are found in most habitats except for the boreal zone and high mountains. The most widespread species is the Turkey Vulture, a common bird in much of the United States and southern Canada. In the southeastern United States, it is joined by the Black Vulture. At a few sites in the southwest it shares the skies with the very rare California Condor.

MIGRATION

Although the Black Vulture and the California Condor are non-migratory, many populations of Turkey Vultures make annual migrations in huge flocks to Central and South America.

HABITS

New world vultures are usually found in flocks although they don’t nest in colonies. These soaring birds take to the sky on a daily basis when the air warms up enough to provide them with “thermals” – currents of warm air that flow upward. Once they are up and riding these thermals, they search for carrion with their sense of smell (Turkey Vultures only), and keen eyesight that is also used to watch for other vultures descending to feed. At a carcass, the feeding hierarchy is established by size although groups of Black Vultures can drive away solitary Turkey Vultures.

CONSERVATION

The California Condor is a critically endangered species that has been brought to the brink of extinction by a variety of changes to its environment, it’s susceptibility to lead poisoning from ingesting bullets from “gut piles” left by hunters after field dressing game, and persecution from ranchers. Its very low reproductive rate has made it difficult for this large species to recover in numbers although a captive breeding program has been successful in increasing condor numbers from a few dozen to over three hundred in captivity and the wild.

INTERESTING FACTS

New world vultures defecate on their own feet to keep cool. The water in their droppings has the same function as sweating; the water evaporates to provide a cooling effect.

Author

Artist

Yury Lisyak