# Turkey vultures and skyscrapers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410 "2008-04-29T23:48:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/1 "2008-04-29T23:48:04Z")
For at least 15 years now, there has been a – flock? – of [turkey vultures](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_vulture) visible soaring above and around the skyscrapers of downtown Tampa. You can see them almost every day. (They’re so high up, I once thought they were hawks or eagles, but I read once in the paper they’re turkey vultures.) Thing is, there’s nothing for them to **eat** downtown. There are no animals to die and be eaten. I’ve never seen even a squirrel in the few street trees. There aren’t even any **people** living in Tampa’s central business district – haven’t been since perhaps the '60s; won’t be, either, until several huge new condo towers now under construction are finished. So there’s not much garbage, if the vultures ate garbage, which they don’t. Do they just like the thermal updrafts skyscrapers create, or what? ---
**Author:** ![JustThinkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@JustThinkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustThinkin)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/2 "2008-04-30T00:49:54Z")
Turkey vultures roost high up, so that they don’t have to fight gravity with that big, heavy body any more than necessary. They also use thermals - warm rising air - to get loft so that they can get to where the food is. Thermals can be created by a lot of things, including a bunch of concrete and reflective buildings and such in a city. What you are seeing is a kettle of vultures gaining height to go search for food. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/3 "2008-04-30T01:17:18Z")
Around here, you regularly see Turkey Vultures soaring on thermals over Ancon Hill, which overlooks Panama City. There isn’t any concentration of food there, that’s just a good place for rising air currents. Turkey Vultures don’t just soar when they are looking for food. They probably soar also when they are just hanging out. They may be better able to thermoregulate like that, and they can stay aloft with minimal exertion. ---
**Author:** ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/4 "2008-05-01T19:48:44Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Thing is, there’s nothing for them to **eat** downtown. There are no animals to die and be eaten. [/QUOTE] Not even pigeons? Sounds like a pretty dismal place. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/5 "2008-05-01T20:13:58Z")
[QUOTE=mwbrooks] Not even pigeons? Sounds like a pretty dismal place. [/QUOTE] I’d second that, at least if I get you right that you’re saying there are more animals in modern cities than one might believe at first glance. Pigeons, mice and other vertebrates living their parasitic existence are much more numerous in the cities than our era obsessed with hygiene wants to believe; they simply hide pretty well, and most people don’t pay attention to them, as Cecil has [repeatedly](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_015b.html) [revealed](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_083.html). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/6 "2008-05-01T20:55:37Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Thing is, there’s nothing for them to **eat** downtown. [/QUOTE] I don’t think you give your downtown enough credit. Just because you don’t see turkey vulture cuisine featured in the Zagat ratings, doesn’t mean there aren’t any intimate dining spots for them. A few springs ago I and my ancient spaniel Bubba were out in the back yard, looked up and there was a flock of turkey vultures roosting in a tree about 20 feet above us. Gave us a turn, it did. “Hurry up, willya? We’re **hungry**.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/7 "2008-05-01T22:39:27Z")
Every winter, [turkey vultures from Ohio](http://miamimirror.blogspot.com/2005/02/courthouse-vultures.html) (link includes a close-up turkey vulture pic) return to ride the currents around the [Dade County](http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMT7Y) [Courthouse](http://www.travelphotobase.com/f/FLMIX/FLMA512.HTM) in downtown Miami. ([Closer view](http://www.travelphotobase.com/f/FLMIX/FLMA513.HTM) [pics](http://www.travelphotobase.com/f/FLMIX/FLMA514.HTM).) Local legend has it that they’re the returning souls of the politicians, district attorneys, trial lawyers and public defenders who had worked there. [Fodor’s](http://www.fodors.com/world/north%20america/usa/florida/miami/entity_178994.html) even mentions this phenomenon, along with the tidbit that that building was once the tallest building in the U.S. south of Washington, D.C. I remember a few of them hovering over the U. of Miami campus as well, during the winter semester midterms. Ominous omen, that. ---
**Author:** ![ArmenE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ArmenE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArmenE)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/8 "2008-05-01T23:20:04Z")
[QUOTE=JustThinkin’] Turkey vultures roost high up, so that they don’t have to fight gravity with that big, heavy body any more than necessary. [/QUOTE] Are you saying that they roost high up to decrease gravitational attraction between them and the Earth?? whoosh? ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/9 "2008-05-02T00:45:32Z")
[QUOTE=ArmenE] Are you saying that they roost high up to decrease gravitational attraction between them and the Earth?? whoosh? [/QUOTE] Hang glider and sailplane pilot checking in. Thermals tend to be weak and poorly defined below 500’ AGL or so. Also, absent power, you need some altitude to give you time to find one. By roosting high up, the TVs don’t have to flap thier way up that 500’ to find a thermal. Also they can wait for a thermal to drift through before launching from thier lofty perch. (hang glider pilots will do this as well) They are only going to drop below 500’ or so if a meal is on offer. ---
**Author:** ![JustThinkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@JustThinkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustThinkin)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turkey-vultures-and-skyscrapers/447410/10 "2008-05-02T00:50:57Z")
[QUOTE=Kevbo] Hang glider and sailplane pilot checking in. Thermals tend to be weak and poorly defined below 500’ AGL or so. Also, absent power, you need some altitude to give you time to find one. By roosting high up, the TVs don’t have to flap thier way up that 500’ to find a thermal. Also they can wait for a thermal to drift through before launching from thier lofty perch. (hang glider pilots will do this as well) They are only going to drop below 500’ or so if a meal is on offer. [/QUOTE] Thank you for saying it better than I was able to.