Turkey Vulture
Cathartes aura
Unlike most birds, the turkey vulture also finds its food by smell, detecting the gases released as decay sets in. When soaring it holds its wings in a shallow V and rocks gently from side to side.
- Group
- Birds of Prey
- Photos
- 1
- Taken
- 2024
Profile: Turkey Vulture
- Family
- New World vultures (Cathartidae)
- Size
- approx. 62–81 cm
- Wingspan
- approx. 1.50–2.00 m
- Weight
- approx. 0.8–2.4 kg
- Habitat
- A wide variety of open and semi-open landscapes in the Americas, from southern Canada to Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands.
- Diet
- Almost exclusively carrion, which it locates by sight and smell; only rarely does it kill small animals.
- When to see
- Present year-round in the southern United States and further south; birds from the north of the range migrate south for the winter, some as far as South America.
Learn more: Wikipedia