The Weekly Chirp: Vulgar Vultures

I took my bicycle out on some back trails this afternoon in search of the perfect bird to tell you about. I listened to the various songs, each more beautiful and melodic than the last as I pedaled through the thickets. Our summer residents have been arriving, and they are a spectacular group!

As I continued on, soon, everything was silent, and the sound of large heavy wings taking off filled the air! I looked up and there must have been about 80 Black Vultures roosting and flying about. The swoosh of their magnificent wings catching their flight was powerful. 

Suddenly, I felt uneasy, vulnerable, amongst this huge crowd of flesh eating uglies!

We have two species of vultures in our area, the smaller Turkey Vulture with a red head, and the Black Vulture with a black head. These amazing creatures are bald and void of feathers down their necks to their shoulders. This is to prevent bacteria growth, and to facilitate sticking their heads with ease into a carcass cavity to eat. It is difficult to tell the two species apart when flying, as the sun always seems to obscure head color. Here is an easy way to distinguish them: the Turkey Vulture has white under wings from his shoulder to the tip. The Black Vulture has white from the elbow to the tip. So, “the Black has more black on the wings, less white.”

As ugly and vulgar as these birds are, we forget the job they are created to fulfill. Imagine how stinky and disease filled our world would be if not for the scavengers created to “clean things up”!

I used to think of these birds as ugly, horrific and just downright vulgar and gross. Now I appreciate and respect them..... though it is still hard to imagine how their parents might keep them in the nest and think of them as adorable!!