Turkey Vulture

Description:

The turkey vulture's head (like the head of its namesake, the wild turkey) is bald and red. Its plumage is primarily dark brown (see photo to right). In flight, the undersides of the wings are two-toned: on the leading edge (the front) of the wing the color appears black or dark brown, and the trailing edge appears silver or whitish (see photo to right). Genders appear identical and it is impossible to visually distinguish males from females. Twenty-five to 32 inches long, with a wingspan around 6 feet. Healthy adult turkey vultures weigh approximately 5 to 6 pounds. Turkey vultures do not have a voice box and thus have limited vocalization capabilities. They can only utter hisses and grunts. They usually hiss when they feel threatened. Grunts are commonly heard from hungry young, and adults in courtship. The turkey vulture, contrary to popular belief, does not feed strictly on carrion (though carrion forms the bulk of its calories). This species has been recorded eating a wide variety of food, including wild and domestic carrion, stranded mussels, shrimp, grasshoppers, mayflies washed onto shore, rotten pumpkins, palm fruit, grapes, juniper berries, and feces of coyote and sea lion. The Turkey Vulture soars above the ground for much of the day, searching for food with its excellent eyesight and highly developed sense of smell. Turkey vultures not only find food individually when foraging, but also may notice when other vultures in flight begin to descend to food and then follow those vultures to the food source. Turkey Vultures fly with their wings in a dihedral ( shallow V-shape), and can often by identified by this dihedral as well as by their characteristic "wobbly" rocking motion in flight. They are very graceful, many even say beautiful, in flight, and can soar for hours without flapping their wings. Their flapping, when it occurs, appears laborious and is usually used on take-offs and before landings.

Habitat:

Park/ Garbage Dump

Notes:

2 large birds circling in the air. It was windy and they caught a breeze and it was hard to get a photo of them. I have never seen one up close they are a rare sight here.