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Vulture Fun Facts

Black and Turkey Vultures are scavengers and feed primarily on carrion. Vultures are part of nature’s clean-up crew. They rid the landscape of deteriorating carcasses and help curb the spread of dangerous diseases and bacteria. Their stomachs have strong enzymes that kill off dangerous toxins and microorganisms.
Vultures lack the powerful feet that are characteristic of other raptors like eagles and hawks. They have long toes with blunted talons, which are easier for walking. Turkey Vultures will often place one or both feet on their food when eating; Black Vultures typically do not use their feet when feeding.
Vultures have long, hooked bills that are designed for tearing pieces of food. Vultures lack feathers on their heads so that they can more easily keep themselves clean when eating. Vultures will often insert their head completely inside the carcass they are cleaning up.
Vultures sustain flight for long periods without flapping their wings. They take advantage of updrafts produced when the wind blows over hills and mountain ridges or make use of rising columns of warm air called "thermals." You rarely see a vulture in the air flapping its wings.
Unlike Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures lack a highly developed sense of smell and so cannot find carrion by scent alone. However, they exploit the superior food-finding skills of Turkey Vultures by following them to carcasses and then displacing them from the food. The sight of one vulture descending to a carcass draws others from over a large area and dozens may assemble at a single carcass.
The legs of vultures are usually coated white, due to the dried uric acid of their excrement. Vultures will mute – excrete waste – onto their legs, serving two different purposes:
In warm weather, muting on their legs serves as part of their thermoregulation – it helps to cool down their body temperature.
When vultures step into a carcass, touching possibly contaminated flesh, they risk tracking bacteria around on their legs. The vultures will excrete onto their legs, and the highly acidic uric acids kill off bacteria and toxins that may be on the bird’s legs.
In the early mornings, vultures often will sit with their wings spread wide, increasing the surface area of their bodies so that the sun can more easily warm them. This is called the “horaltic pose”.
Black Vultures are “family-oriented” birds – they feed their young for up to eight months after their young have fledged and often stay together in family groups.
Vultures lack a voice box; their vocalizations include rasping hisses and grunts.
According to All About Birds, "The word 'vulture' likely comes from the Latin vellere, which means to pluck or tear. [The Turkey Vulture's] scientific name, Cathartes aura, is far more pleasant. It means either 'golden purifier' or 'purifying breeze'."
Vultures can live to be 25 years old.
Unlike most bird species, Turkey Vultures rely on their sense of smell to find prey. Black Vultures rely on sight.
Vultures were once regarded as largely beneficial and were well-tolerated in human-populated areas. A negative attitude toward these scavengers was developed in the early 1900s when people became concerned that vultures might increase the spread of disease, despite strong evidence to the contrary.

Thanks for the “fun facts”

Especially the “leg coating”

Didn’t know it had a purpose. Yucky but a purpose

As kids we used to lie on our backs and watch the summer clouds go by. Occasionally a “kettle’ of vultures would circle around us(guess they thought we were a “meal” They would circle a few times then catch a thermal and rise...and rise about the tops of the Cumulus clouds and drift out of sight, away from our farm. We counted about twenty something birds. Good times...