Turkey vultures tend to get a bad rap. With their bald, red heads, naked necks, and less-than-dainty dining habits, they can seem creepy and sinister at first glance. But contrary to their ominous image, emerging research suggests these ubiquitous scavengers may actually be quite friendly. I took a closer look at the evidence to find out if turkey vultures might make for surprisingly affable avian companions.
Social Bonds Between Vultures
Like many highly intelligent bird species, turkey vultures are actually very social. They roost communally at night in large groups, sometimes numbering in the thousands. These congregations likely consist of the same flocks that forage together during daylight hours.
Throughout the year turkey vultures maintain complex social networks and hierarchies. Their frequent interactions and displays reinforce social rankings and relationships within the flock. This propensity for sociality indicates turkey vultures have an underlying capacity for companionship.
Captive Vultures Can Bond with Humans
The most compelling proof that turkey vultures can be friendly comes from birds under human care. At wildlife rehabilitation centers and avian sanctuaries across the country, injured turkey vultures are rescued and rehabilitated.
Once healed and acclimated, some begin exhibiting surprising bonds with their human caretakers. Rescued vultures may follow handlers around their enclosures, seek frequent contact and affection, or gently nibble on clothing in a playful way.
They quickly learn to recognize individual staff members, and form special preferences for their favorite people. These behaviors reveal their potential for meaningful cross-species social engagement when raised in close human proximity.
Vultures Play and Forage Cooperatively
Another sign of turkey vultures’ friendly tendencies is their penchant for play. Social preening and play wrestling are common among mated pairs and families Fledglings will also playfully spar over sticks. Such activities likely strengthen social ties
Turkey vultures also coordinate behaviors like soaring displays and group foraging. Rather than overt competition, flocks cooperate by sharing knowledge of ample carrion. Their frequent social play and collaboration imply an affable nature.
Vultures Recognize Other Individuals
Given their keen eyesight and intelligence, turkey vultures can identify specific flock mates they regularly interact with over many years. This capacity for individual recognition probably facilitates bonding within consistent groups.
Vultures can also distinguish individual human caretakers, even when their appearance changes. Remembering particular people further indicates their social aptitude.
Long-Term Vulture Relationships
Another hallmark of companionship among turkey vultures is their propensity to form long-term pair bonds and family units. Mates often remain together across multiple breeding seasons to cooperatively raise young. And parents maintain connections with offspring for several formative years as they learn to forage and integrate into the flock.
Do Vultures Show Empathy?
Mourning behaviors are common in highly social bird species. When a mate or flock member perishes, remaining vultures will sometimes linger near the body for hours. While still debated, this may signal distress or loss on an emotional level.
Some caretakers also attest to vultures showing excitement when favored handlers return after an absence, or becoming agitated when those humans leave. Interpreting avian emotions remains complicated, but possible basic bonds are intriguing.
Vultures Seek Physical Contact
When socialized to humans, turkey vultures relish physical touch. They’ll often solicit petting and rub their bald heads against caretakers. Preening companions with their beaks also seems to be an affectionate gesture. Their desire for proximity and contact further indicates amicable tendencies.
Mythbusting Vulture Misconceptions
While some false impressions persist, evidence dispels common turkey vulture myths:
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Myth: Turkey vultures are aggressive and dangerous.
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Fact: Turkey vultures are peaceful and non-confrontational, rarely even defending themselves.
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Myth: Turkey vultures spread disease.
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Fact: Their highly acidic stomachs actually neutralize pathogens.
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Myth: Turkey vultures signify death and doom.
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Fact: Circling vultures simply indicate a potential food source, not imminent demise.
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Myth: Turkey vultures are revolting scavengers.
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Fact: They provide an invaluable cleaning service and control disease.
Debunking misinformation allows us to recognize turkey vultures for the friendly, ecologically vital birds they are.
The Verdict: Turkey Vultures Can Make Good Friends
When considered objectively, turkey vultures display many hallmarks of animal companionship. Their intelligence facilitates complex social bonds, individual recognition, coordinated behaviors, and long-term relationships. For turkey vultures able to imprint on humans, these inherent social capacities allow for possible interspecies friendship.
So while turkey vultures still can’t legally be kept as pets, they likely appreciate friendship as much as any domestic bird. If given the chance, both wild and rehabilitated turkey vultures seem fully capable of surprising us with their potential for charming camaraderie. Once their gentle nature is understood, who knows – a turkey vulture just might become your newest feathered friend!
About the Turkey Vulture
The Turkey Vulture is North Americas most frequently seen soaring bird. One of the best ways to start learning raptors in flight is to first peg identification of this species. Long-tailed and looming, the Turkey Vulture circles overhead on two-toned wings held in a shallow V, seldom flapping but often rocking slightly side to side. Seen in good light, this is the only raptor with a red head. On the ground, it is easy to mistake this very large, dark vulture for a Wild Turkey. Thus, the name.
Two other vultures occur in the U.S. and Canada — the Black Vulture and the Critically Endangered California Condor. The first is smaller and the second far larger than the Turkey Vulture, yet both species can out-muscle it for carrion, as do other species, including King Vultures (in the tropics) and Red-tailed Hawks.
Black Vultures and California Condors rely on their eyesight to spot carrion, but Turkey Vultures both watch and smell their way to meals. Compared with most other vultures, Turkey Vultures have much-enlarged olfactory bulbs that give them a super-keen sense of smell, which they tap to locate carcasses other birds miss. But competitors are always watching: In areas where both Black and Turkey Vultures occur, the smaller Black Vulture often follows Turkey Vultures to meals, then crowds out the larger bird. Some research indicates Turkey Vultures may favor smaller carcasses, which they can consume quickly after arriving on the scene. Turkey Vultures also step aside for the far-larger California Condor, but benefit when its their turn because the rare giant can tear open tough skin its smaller cousin cannot. A similar arrangement occurs in South America, where King Vultures or Andean Condors “rule the roost.”
Birders rarely hear Turkey Vultures make sounds, other than, if birds are close by, the flapping of the large birds wings, or wind rushing through them. Turkey Vultures do sometimes vocalize, though: When scuffling over food, or at the nest site, they may hiss. They also make clucking and wheezing sounds.
Turkey Vultures dont make a formal nest, but rather the female usually lays two eggs (each approximately the size of a chicken egg) in a dark location. In the West, this bird usually nests in rocky locations — on cliffs, in caves, or among large boulders. In the East, nests may be in rocky areas, in thickets, in large tree cavities, on large logs or stumps, or in brush piles. Sometimes, Turkey Vultures nest atop abandoned hawk nests or in vacant buildings, or even in junked cars. One thing these varied nesting situations have in common: Turkey Vultures usually choose places far from regular human activity.
At the dark, quiet nest site, both parents take turns incubating the eggs for 30 to 40 days. Once they hatch, nestlings receive regurgitated meals from their parents. It takes nine to ten weeks (rarely, as few as six) for young to be able to fly.
Turkey Vultures feed almost entirely on carrion, with a noted preference for “fresher” finds. Many of their meals are mammalian, from dead mice to cattle, but they also eat dead invertebrates, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. In times of shortage, they may eat some rotting vegetation. On rare occasions, Turkey Vultures eat live prey, such as trapped small mammals, insects, or minnows stranded in drying pools.
The Turkey Vulture frequents open areas, including pastures, deserts, grasslands, shorelines, open forest, roadsides, and trash dumps — almost anywhere there may be carrion or trash left in the open. It usually roosts and nests in wooded areas or other out-of-reach outposts like cliffs or tall towers or buildings.
The Turkey Vulture nests from southern Canada to South Americas southern tip in Tierra del Fuego. It also nests on many islands, including those in the northern Caribbean and in the Falklands.
This vulture is present year-round across much of its expansive range, with the exception of Canada and many northern and inland U.S. states, which are vacated in fall, until birds return in February or March. During migration, large numbers of Turkey Vultures pass over concentration points. For example, on average, 1.5 million are tallied over Veracruz, Mexico each fall.
In recent decades, Turkey Vulture populations have grown in many areas. The species breeding and wintering ranges have expanded as well. Population estimates are not available for Central and South America, but these birds remain widespread and common across their range.
Turkey Vultures do face some widespread threats. Lead poisoning is one of the greatest: When feeding on dead animals such as deer killed by lead shot, the birds often suffer the effect of the toxins within the meat they eat. Turkey Vultures also are killed or injured by leg-hold traps set to catch mammals.
Although most people understand and appreciate the natural cleaning services performed by vultures and other scavengers, Turkey Vultures are still sometimes killed due to unwarranted fears that they spread disease to livestock, or because they are mistakenly believed to be a threat to young livestock.
Policies enacted by the U.S. Congress and federal agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have a huge impact on migratory birds. You can help shape these rules for the better by telling lawmakers to prioritize birds, bird habitat, and bird-friendly measures. To get started, visit ABCs Action Center.
Living a bird-friendly life can have an immediate impact on migratory birds in the United States. Doing so can be as easy as adding native plants to your garden, avoiding pesticides, and keeping cats indoors. To learn more, visit our Bird-Friendly Life page.
American Bird Conservancy and our Migratory Bird Joint Venture partners have improved conservation management on more than 8.5 million acres of U.S. bird habitat — an area larger than the state of Maryland — over the last ten years. Thats not all: With the help of international partners, weve established a network of more than 100 areas of priority bird habitat across the Americas, helping to ensure that birds needs are met during all stages of their lifecycles. These are monumental undertakings, requiring the support of many, and you can help by making a gift today.
Your contribution will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Act by December 31!
- Scientific Name: Cathartes aura
- Population: 6,700,000 (estimate only for U.S. and Canada)
- Trend: Stable or increasing
- Habitat: Open areas, woods, coasts.
Turkey Vulture Turkey Vulture chick Turkey Vulture drying wings
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FAQ
How to befriend a Turkey Vulture?
Typically when someone begins working with her I have them feed her daily for a week or so. This strengthens the bond (because she likes food and is rewarded with food when she “puts up with” a new person).
How do vultures show affection?
Romantic Rituals: Wooing the Vulture Way
When a Turkey Vulture falls for another, they go all out to prove their love. Their courtship dance is a sight to behold: circling gracefully in the air, hopping with partially spread wings on the ground, and gliding close to their partner in synchronized flight.
Are turkey vultures aggressive?
Behavior: The Turkey Vulture is gentle and non-aggressive. They are usually found in large groups, venturing out independently during the day to forage for food. Adaptations: Their bare head is a great adaptation for an animal that constantly sticks its head inside the bodies of dead animals.
Why are turkey vultures hanging around my house?
When a vulture lands on your house, it is mostly because they sense food in your house and are trying to locate it. Other times, it is because they are trying to increase their body temperature in the morning and your house has a thermal spot to help achieve this purpose.
Are turkey vultures gentle?
“They’re really gentle.” Turkey vultures remain as unknown to science as they do to Scripture. Charles Darwin described vultures as “disgusting” animals that “wallow in putridity.” Nearly two centuries later, scientists don’t understand why turkey vultures devour the vinyl seat cushions on boats.
Why are turkey vultures protected?
Protections help shield them from reckless persecution or accidental harm from human land uses. In summary, turkey vultures are protected because they play valuable ecological roles while generally avoiding damage to human interests. Their inherently vulnerable life histories and populations make conservation regulations appropriate and necessary.
How do turkey vultures treat strangers?
In the wild, turkey vultures treat strangers with outlandish disdain. The birds are monogamous for life. As parents, they swap turns incubating eggs. After a chick is hatched, both parents spend eight weeks scouring the landscape for carrion, which they regurgitate for their young. If anyone disturbs this ritual, adult turkey vultures flop over.
Do turkey vultures scavenge?
Myths and misinformation have fueled persecution of turkey vultures. But research-based facts paint a very different picture of their ecological roles and behavior: Vultures prefer scavenging. Studies show they very rarely kill live animals. Vultures’ acidic stomachs kill bacteria from carcasses.
Where can I see turkey vultures?
Many migratory hotspots like Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania and Franklins Hawk Watch in Mexico offer monthly counts and education programs focused on turkey vultures and other raptors. These sites provide bases for viewing the birds in flight during migration.
How long do turkey vultures live?
Average lifespan in the wild is 10-12 years, but banded turkey vultures have been documented living over 16 years. Their survival depends heavily on avoiding human impacts like shootings, poisonings, and collisions. Why are turkey vultures good for the environment?