Turkey Vultures

Nature Notes for April 15, 2011

The April 7 issue of NorthumberlandToday.com carried a great photo of a Turkey Vulture, so I thought that readers might be interested in learning a bit more about this big bird.

Because of its size, it is often noticed by people who don’t usually pay much attention to birds. It is migrating back into our area now. At this writing, 6,336 Turkey Vultures have been counted this spring by the hawk watch at Beamer Conservation Area, which sits atop the Niagara Escarpment at Beamsville. This is a concentration point for northward migration of birds which don’t like to fly over water. Once safely past the lower Great Lakes, the birds fan out over the province.

During the southward migration in the fall, many can be seen flying west along the Lake Ontario shore. In parts of the southern U.S., Turkey Vultures are year round residents.  Because they have no feathers on their heads, vultures must withdraw from the northern part of their range when the temperatures drop. They are found throughout Central and South America, but nothing is known about where exactly the Ontario birds spend the winter.

In flight, the Turkey Vulture tips its wings up, so that its silhouette is a shallow V. It can fly long distances without flapping, riding the air currents, tipping from side to side.

Although Turkey Vultures look like they should belong to the hawk family, recent DNA work has found that they are more closely related to storks.

If you think that Turkey Vultures didn’t used to be in this part of the world, you are right. Although the earliest record for Northumberland County was in the early 1930s, sightings of vultures didn’t become an annual occurrence until the 1960s. The first record for Presqu’ile was in 1979 and it was only in the 1980s that it became a common bird. The twenty years between the two editions of the Breeding Birds of Ontario documents this range expansion.

Following World War II, the interstate highway system in the U.S. was expanded. Ontario, too, has built many highways in the past sixty years. This provided an unexpected (by the road builders) bonanza of food for the vultures: road kill. Dead raccoons, skunks, woodchucks, turtles and in some places, deer, provide an abundant resource for an animal which feeds on carrion.

As well, global warming over the past century has probably contributed to the Turkey Vultures’ range expansion.

With their red naked heads, they are well-adapted to feed on carrion. It is much easier to keep a bare head clean than it would be to keep feathers in good shape when dead things are the primary food. Their gut is able to neutralize toxins of decomposition which would harm other animals.

Turkey Vultures are thought to be one of the few birds which has a well-developed sense of smell, thought to help them find carrion. The part of the vulture brain which is involved in smell is larger that it is in most birds.

Turkey Vultures don’t really build much of a nest. They nest on the ground, in caves, on cliff faces, in hollow logs or trees and in abandoned buildings. The same nest site may be used for many years.

They typically lay 2 eggs and both the male and female incubate. As with most large birds, the incubation time is quite long (38-41 days) and the chicks can remain in the nest up to 88 days.

The young birds are fed regurgitant. That is, the adults eat and return to the nest where the youngsters stick their heads down the adults’ throats to get their meal. Turkey Vultures don’t have strong enough legs or beaks to carry large food items back to the nest.

 They are pretty amazing creatures, able to make a living on food that would kill most other animals – one of nature’s major recyclers.