As ours days get warmer, glance up into the sky to look for groups of turkey vultures soaring overhead. This week, turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) began arriving back to North Central Washington from wintering ground in the southern U.S., Mexico, and farther south in Central America, thousands of miles away. They are energy-efficient fliers who glide and soar, rarely needing to flap their wings. Long narrow wings are held at a bent (dihedral) “V” shaped angle so the bird can teeter back and forth to maintain lift and stability. They utilize rising warm air and updrafts for flap-free lift. The turkey vulture’s unique flight pattern allows a viewer from far away to confirm the ID, knowing it isn’t a bald eagle or an osprey.
Turkey vultures eat carrion – dead things! They use both smell and sight to find dead rodents, birds, or reptiles. People often see turkey vultures feeding on highway roadkill.
Turkey vultures roost together each night in a colony, often in the tops of black cottonwood trees. Travelers between Dryden and Leavenworth on State Highway 2 can observe a colony in tree tops along the Wenatchee River at the highway bridge. It is believed that turkey vultures mate for life (more data is needed). They nest in depressions in an isolated rock cliff, cave, or tree cavity. Both parent take turns incubating the eggs and feeding the chicks.
The underside of wing feathers have a gray-silvery sheen. Legs are pink, but usually stained white from excrement. The red heads of vultures have scattered black bristles but no feathers. Biologists long believed that being feather-free was an adaptation for staying clean while eating carrion, but new research shows that it allows birds to adjust for extreme heat and cold and not use precious energy to regulate body temperature internally. By tucking or extending the neck to expose different amounts of bare skin to the elements, a bird can physically adjust for heat loss or gain.
Watch an abundance video that shows where turkey vultures are for each month of the year on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology eBird site. Read more about turkey vultures at All About Birds. We can thank carrion feeders like turkey vultures for keeping dead animals from piling up! Learn more about our region’s birds on the North Central Washington Audubon Society webpage. Teachers and parents can find a wide variety of free bird-centered curricula and activities here. View a turkey vulture webcam video to watch it taking a pit stop during migration. Seattle-based BirdNote has several excellent turkey vulture archived 2-minute shows to tickle your ears.