15 Amazing Turkey Vulture Facts (2024)

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15 Amazing Turkey Vulture Facts? ›

Turkey vultures are the only vulture species with a good sense of smell. Other vultures, including the Black vulture, will often follow Turkey Vultures to find a meal. Vultures have a bare head and legs to keep clean while dining on carcasses, and are often seen sunning themselves in the morning or after a meal.

Turkey vultures are the only vulture species with a good sense of smell. Other vultures, including the Black vulture, will often follow Turkey Vultures to find a meal. Vultures have a bare head and legs to keep clean while dining on carcasses, and are often seen sunning themselves in the morning or after a meal.

A Turkey Vulture's bald head also makes it easy for us to identify. a bright red head and pale beak are distinguishing characteristics of this species. In addition to their bald heads, Turkey Vultures have other unique adaptations. To keep cool, Turkey Vultures will sometimes pee on their own legs!

Birds are amazing as their intelligence is often greater than other animals. Two of the most intelligent are the crow and the raven. The turkey vulture is another bird that has superior intelligence. It's called a turkey buzzard because its bald and red head resembles a turkey.

The average life expectancy is 16 years in the wild, and up to 30 years in captivity.

Interesting Facts about Vultures

Vultures are relatively silent as they lack a syrinx so they can only hiss, growl, and snarl. They are predominantly scavengers but will occasionally kill small animals that are sick or dying. However, they will not eat a carcass that is more than a few days old as it become putrid.

Predators and Defense

The turkey vulture has few natural predators and keen eye sight. Predators include golden and bald eagles, great horned owls, red tailed hawks, and nests can be ravaged by raccoons, opossums, and occasionally foxes.

Tame turkey vultures recognize their human caretakers, and show affection to the ones they like. For turkey vultures, nibbling at the socks of their keepers is a favorite game.

The main concern is lead shot that ends up in carcasses or gut piles left by hunters. The animals eat the shot and eventually suffer lead poisoning. Other threats include trapping and killing due to erroneous fears that they spread disease. Far from it, vultures actually reduce the spread of disease.

Health and Safety Concerns

Turkey vultures may carry salmonella and other gram-negative bacteria in their stomachs. Vultures do not spread anthrax, hog cholera, or avian influenza.

Are turkey vultures blind? ›

Turkey vultures find carrion, dead animals, by sight and smell. Their eyesight is excellent except in the dark, often spotting carcasses up to a mile away.

Urinating on their legs may be another way that vultures protect themselves from their dicey dietary environment. The uric acid may act as an antiseptic, keeping the bacteria teeming in an animal carcass from entering any cuts or scratches on the vulture's legs.

Soaring speed is 15 - 20 mph and they stay low – at treetop level or about 200 feet above the ground to better detect food. Their “bald” heads help them to stay clean when feeding inside a carcass. Turkey Vultures play an important role by being part of nature's clean-up crew.

The scientific name means "cleansing breeze." Turkey vultures can travel up to 200 miles in a day. Their feet are useless for killing prey, but beaks are strong enough to rip through cow hide. A bald head prevents a delicious meal of dead meat from getting stuck to their feathers.

Turkey vultures soar on the thermals all day and roost together at night. One evening, I saw 50 turkey vultures perched above our house on my neighbor's dead tree.

Turkey Vultures lack the vocal organs to make proper songs. Most of their vocalizations come down to a form of low, guttural hiss made when they are irritated or vying for a better spot on a carcass. They also may give a low, nasal whine while in flight.

If you see several of them circling in the sky, they might just be riding a thermal to get higher for a long flight. Turkey vultures can fly as high as 40,000 feet in the air.

Vultures help clean up the environment by eating the flesh off dead animals before it rots and causes disease.

According to the All About Birds resource the total breeding population size of the Turkey vulture is around 18 million individuals. According to Wikipedia resource, the total population size of this species is around 4,500,000 individuals.

Vultures have keen eyesight that they use to locate food. Turkey vultures can find food by smell, but black vultures lack a well- developed sense of smell. Vultures have strong bills for pulling and tearing but relatively weak feet, so they cannot lift or carry much weight.