I’m having trouble finding info on this gorgeous, huge bird I saw a few minutes ago. I live in Indiana and the bird was absolutely huge and black with a red head. It had a wingspan of 3-4 feet. It was perched on a bridge in a wooded area and as I drove past it flew away before I could take a picture.
It might have been a vulture, but the photos I’ve found online do not look like the bird I saw. I will try to go out and see if it is still around or has come back. That is the problem I have with bird-watching. I see these gorgeous birds and can’t identify them.
Here’s the turkey vulture, which is definitely in the huge area (wingspan well over 5’). The head is naked and can appear reddish, though not always conspicuously so.
That’s it. After reading that, it seems that the turkey vulture is somewhat disgusting. But this bird was just so huge and amazing that I still think it was awesome. When I saw it I actually said, “holy wow,” lol. I want to go back out and see if I can get a picture. It probably is gone by now, but it’s worth taking a look.
Despite their culinary habits, Turkey Vultures are actually pretty cool birds. See my staff report on Why do vultures circle dead stuff? for more info.
In some parts of the US, folks call the vulture a “buzzard.” Roger Tory Peterson, in his Field Guide To The Birds East of the Rockies, uses “buzzard” in reference to the buteos, a group of hawks that include the Red-tailed Hawk. I won’t wrestle with either side, I’m just providing the information.
Vultures aren’t very showy on the ground, but they are magnificent in flight.
This is a classic misnomer, which originated during the colonial era from immigrants who didn’t know a raven from a writing-desk. The true “Buzzard” Buteo buteo is common in England and elsewhere in Europe. Since it, like other hawks of the genus Buteo, soars a lot, its name got applied to the Turkey Vulture, which also soars, rather than it’s actual relatives like the Red-tail.
Similarly the Peregrine Falcon was called the Duck Hawk by colonists; the Merlin the Pigeon Hawk; the American Kestrel, a falcon, was called the Sparrow Hawk (whereas the true Sparrow Hawk of Europe is an accipiter related to the Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawk); and the Northern Harrier was called the Marsh Hawk. Most of these names have now been changed to agree with European usage. Buzzard, however, is perhaps too ingrained for Americans to see a change to Red-tailed Buzzard anytime soon.
Now don’t get me started on the confusion between Elk, Moose, Red Deer, and Wapiti . . .
Most of the North American population of Turkey Vultures, along with Broad-winged and Swainson’s Hawks (both “buzzards”), migrate through Panama en route to wintering grounds in South America. For several years we have run raptor watches here at several sites, and have recorded more than 3.1 million raptors over a six week period. Many migrate right over Panama City, and I can sometimes see tens of thousands from my appartment window.
In 2005 the migration was delayed due to the series of hurricanes that hit Central America that year. Nearly half the migration passed in just one day in November. A total of more than 600,000 birds, most of them Turkey Vultures, passed in only a few hours. It was one of the most amazing spectacles I have ever seen.
Turkey Vultures are essentially solar-powered on migration. They rely on thermal soaring, and hardly flap their wings at all. They apparently eat little or nothing during their migration, which can take a couple of months.
Perhaps not simply by choice though. Our caged vultures are marvelously attractive to migrating vultures, who we’ve always assumed operate on the principle of “vultures on the ground means food is served”. On a quiet morning in fall, the trees outside my office window may hold a hundred or more turkey and black vultures, all apparently asking our non-releasable birds “So, where is breakfast, anyway?”.
We once had a visitor ask if vultures defecate, and we answered in the affirmative. She said that her husband, who ‘knows everything’, declared that they didn’t. She asked us to collect some, as proof. So I had my animal care staff fill a coffee can with vulture poop, which she carried away.
A month later she returned, laughing and bearing a financial donation. Apparently she boxed the coffee can as a Christmas present for hubby. She said that his reaction was so memorable, she had to come and reward us.
Now if I can only find a larger market for vulture poo…
You can see a number of turkey vultures riding the thermals at Devils Lake. I had them hovering three to five feet from my spot on the bluff. They would slowly rise up fro, below the ledge and hang close for half a minute. I got to study them closely and didn’t find them gross.
…if the Panamanian researcher is our pseudonymous Colibri?
“In an experiment in Panama, a researcher put out chicken carcasses in the tropical forest, hiding them so they were not visible from the air.” (From one of Cecil’s columns)
They would probably eat if they could, but finding enough food when you are in a flock of 50,000 is pretty tough. They mostly don’t bother once they are well on their way in Central America.
Thanks, but that’s not from one of Cecil’s columns, it’s from my own Staff Report I linked to above. The work wasn’t done by me but someone else who was working at our research station:
Houston, D. C. 1986. Scavenging Efficiency of Turkey Vultures in Tropical Forest. Condor 88(3): 318-323.
There is a hamlet a few miles South of Cleveland that is moderately famous as a terminus of the turkey vulture/buzzard migration: The Buzzards of Hinckley, Ohio (The Beeb has one error: the “cliffs” are about 70 feet higher than the lake with a total elevation of 350 feet. There are no 350 foot cliffs in this part of the world.) (Local history site and About.com’s perspective with links to buzzard info.)
Far less well known, there is another buzzard roost in Newbury Township near the corners of Auburn Rd. and Pekin Rd. and there are probably others in NE Ohio, as well. I suspect that they tend to hang out in familiar territories, so the OP might look around to find their nesting area in his own neighborhood.
