Are Turkey Vultures Endangered? Investigating Misleading Conservation Listings

Look for Turkey Vultures as they cruise open areas including mixed farmland, forest, and rangeland. They are particularly noticeable along roadsides and at landfills. At night, they roost in trees, on rocks, and other high secluded spots. Back to top.

Turkey Vultures eat carrion, which they find largely by their excellent sense of smell. Mostly they eat mammals but are not above snacking on reptiles, other birds, amphibians, fish, and even invertebrates. They often have to wait for their meal to soften before they can pierce the skin, but they prefer freshly dead animals. They are skilled foragers who start with the softest parts and have even been observed to discard the scent glands of deceased skunks. Fortunately, vultures seem to have very strong immune systems because they happily eat carcasses without getting salmonella, cholera, anthrax, or botulism. Unlike their Black Vulture relatives, Turkey Vultures almost never attack living prey. Back to top.

Turkey Vultures build their nests in abandoned hawk or heron nests, abandoned buildings, thickets, caves, ledges, hollow logs, and mammal burrows. Usually, these nest sites are at least 13°F colder than their surroundings and are secluded from any disturbance or human traffic. While they often feed near humans, Turkey Vultures prefer to nest far away from civilization.

Turkey Vultures don’t build full nests. They might remove obstacles, dig a hole in the ground or leaf litter, or arrange pieces of decaying wood or vegetation. Once found, many of these nest sites may be used repeatedly for a decade or more.

Turkey vultures are known for their slow, teetering flight patterns, which likely aid in their ability to soar at low altitudes, where they can use their noses to find carrion more effectively. At other times they may soar high on thermals and form mixed flocks or kettles. On the ground they move with ungainly hops and are less agile than Black Vultures. They frequently stand erect, especially in the morning, with their wings outstretched in the sun, perhaps as a means of drying off, warming up, or cooling down. Outside of the breeding season, Turkey Vultures form roosts of dozens to a hundred individuals. Pairs of Turkey Vultures engage in a “follow flight” display during courtship, in which one bird guides the other through approximately one minute of twisting, turning, and flapping flights. This display can last up to three hours. Migrating flocks can number in the thousands. While multiple Turkey Vultures may congregate at carcasses, usually only one feeds at a time, driving the others away and forcing them to wait for their turn. Turkey Vultures are large birds of prey, but smaller species like Crested Caracaras, Zone-tailed Hawks, and Black Vultures frequently chase them away. Back to top.

Turkey Vultures increased in number across North America approximately 1. 8% per year from 1966 to 2019, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight projects that there are 28 million breeding individuals worldwide. Based on the Continental Concern Score, this population is rated as low conservation concern, with a score of five out of twenty. Although DDT side effects once put these birds in danger, they have since recovered to become some of North America’s most common large carnivorous birds. However, similar to California condors, they are susceptible to toxins or lead from deceased animals because they feed on decaying flesh. The main concern is lead shot that ends up in carcasses or gut piles left by hunters. The animals eat the shot and eventually suffer lead poisoning. Other threats include trapping and killing due to erroneous fears that they spread disease. Far from it, vultures actually reduce the spread of disease.

Kirk, David A. and Michael J. Mossman. (1998). Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), version 2. 0. In The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA.

Lutmerding, J. A. and A. S. Love. (2020). Longevity records of North American birds. Version 2020. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Bird Banding Laboratory 2020.

Sauer, J. R. , D. K. Niven, J. E. Hines, D. J. Ziolkowski Jr. , K. L. Pardieck, J. E. Fallon, and W. A. Link (2019). The North American Breeding Bird Survey, Results and Analysis 1966–2019. Version 2. 07. 2019. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD, USA.

Sibley, D. A. (2014). The Sibley Guide to Birds, second edition. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, USA.

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