A Black Vulture is a handsome bird if you don't think about what it eats!
Just take a look at its big feet – while they aren’t good for grasping, they are pretty handy for holding food in place. Not that the dead animals would be going anywhere, mind you.
Those of you who live north and west might be more familiar with the Black Vulture’s red-headed cousin, the Turkey Vulture. Unlike the Turkey Vulture, however, the Black Vulture can’t use smell to find its rotten meal – it searches either by sight or by following other vulture species to their delicious finds (at which point it will happily push them away from the food). The fact that it searches for food by sight does put young calves and other newborn animals at risk – sadly, the Black Vulture might approach one with a single thought on its mind. While it likes dead food, it is quite open-minded to alternatives.
As it turns out, Black Vultures lay their eggs on the ground, maybe in an old log, thicket, or brush pile – even an abandoned barn or other building. Both parents will incubate the eggs and feed the nestlings. What good parents!
FYI, vultures are vultures, and buzzards are hawks (specific hawks at that). Anyone calling a vulture a buzzard is quite mistaken. And vultures are bald for a reason. Would you want your hair to get covered in the food you eat? Vultures wouldn’t want the food they eat to be stuck in feathers on their head, either, for obvious reasons.
My favorite vulture fact is this, and I never cease to delight in sharing it: Don’t walk up and startle a vulture. Its defense mechanism is to throw up on you — and you know what it eats. But in any case, I cheer all vultures for their less-than-beautiful role in the ecosystem, though it would be nice if they’d leave newborn wildlife alone.
Aren’t you glad I didn’t show you a picture of a vulture eating?
Meredith O’Reilly gardens for wildlife in Austin, Texas, and writes about her garden adventures at Great Stems.
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Great information, thanks Meredith. I don’t mind pictures of vultures eating, although the regurgitation to their young makes me a little queasy. I think I can go one better though. Koala babies have to eat their mother’s poo to be able to digest eucalypt leaves. Double yuck!
Opps, the koala eating its mother’s poo wasn’t really in context was it. Perhaps I should have mentioned a scavanger like the Tasmanian Devil. Can you tell I’m an Aussie?
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My other favorite vulture fact is that in order to cool off, they poop down their own legs. Truly a noble beast!
…but honestly, I’m glad they’re around, since we have so many road-killed deer around here, and the big families of black vultures are a familiar sight on the roadside. My town would be a much stinkier place without them.
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It’s so true that Vultures will push other animals out of the way to get to their food. I saw a large group of them once push away a bear to get at the food, a baby bear mind you, but still a bear.
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Meredith I marvel at the turkey vultures that live nearby…they fly around and are quite a majestic sight. And yes I am quite happy you did not share a picture of them eating. Although I have seen carcasses on the side of the road picked clean by vultures
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Great info Meredith!
ahh, the lovely black vulture is close to my heart. We have scads of them out here and upon closeup look, they are actually quite attractive birds. I love their white legs, looks like they have boots on! I didn’t know that they seek out food by site as opposed to smell. I generally see a bunch of black vultures with one or two turkey vultures (the food tour guides??).
p.s., I have been known to put mayo in my hair
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I love posts like this, so thanks!
Since vultures are generally disliked, I have a thing for them.
I think my appreciation may have started with Andrew Wyeth’s 1950 painting, Soaring. It’s a beauty, with the farm below. What a perspective they have us, the purifiers.
Google it.
-David
PS
The olfactory issue is also very intriguing. Good stuff!
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