Here in Southern Alabama, turkey vultures from up North overwinter and are seen daily soaring and wheeling against the sky, along with black vultures.
They’re easy to tell apart. Black vultures have an under-wing “hand” of lighter feathers and turkey vultures have a full wing edge of lighter feathers underneath. Turkey vultures are bigger with a more narrow, longer wingspan. Also they have red heads while black vulture heads are grey.
Now the black vultures don’t migrate as far North as the turkey vultures. I’ve just noticed a bunch of black vultures in the sky and only one turkey vulture.
The turkey vultures must be on the move North.
Spring is here, y’all!
Black vultures find food by eye, turkey vultures by sense of smell. Generally they mind their own business of eating dead armadillos, cats, and coons on the side of the road. Sometimes small birds harass the vultures and hawks and owls in flight, but last week I saw the table turned and a black vulture that was swooping on a crow [harmlessly as vulture’s feet are not taloned to grab prey as are hawks], but the crow was making a weird crying noise and trying to hide from it in a tree. The vulture made a couple more flyby dives and then went away. Very weird, not sure if it was just having fun, or if the crow was an early fledger with no experience, or if it was an adult that perhaps had been ticking off the vultures by trying to snitch vulture eggs from a rooftop.