Black Vultures, Black Vulture Pictures, Black Vulture Facts

Black Vultures, Black Vulture Pictures, Black Vulture Facts

The gregarious black vulture roosts, feeds, and soars in groups, often mixed with turkey vultures. A carrion feeder that will bully a turkey vulture away from a carcass, it occasionally kills smaller live prey. Polytypic (3 ssp.; nominate in North America). Length 25" (64 cm); wingspan 57" (145 cm). Identification Adult: glossy black feathers can show iridescence in the right light. Whitish inner primaries often hard to see on the folded wing. Whitish legs contrast with dark gray head color. Skin of head wrinkled; bill dark at base and tipped ivory or yellowish. Juvenile: black body and wing feathers usually duller, less iridescent. Skin of head smooth, darker black than an adult. Flight: conspicuous white or silvery patches at base of primaries that contrast with black wings, body, and tail. Whitish legs extend almost to tip of relatively short tail. Soars and glides with wings held in a slight dihedral. If seen at a distance, the quick, shallow, choppy wingbeats interspersed with glides are usually enough for an identification. Similar Species The turkey vulture shows silvery inner secondaries and a pronounced dihedral while in flight, along with a deeper, more fluid wingbeat. Voice Hisses when threatened. Status and Distribution Abundant in the Southeast, expanding up the East Coast into southern New England. Less common in southern Great Plains, local in southern Arizona. Breeding: nests in a sheltered area on the ground, including abandoned buildings. Migration: sedentary, northern breeders, may migrate with turkey vultures to warmer winter territory. Vagrant: casual to California, northern New England, and southern Canada. Population The species adapts well to human presence, feeding on roadkills and at garbage dumps. —From the book Complete Birds of North America, 2006,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

• Woodland
• Food
  
  Carrion
• Nesting
  
  Cliff
• Behavior
  
  Soaring
• Conservation
  
  Least Concern

Measurements

Both Sexes

Length

23.6–26.8 in
60–68 cm

Wingspan

53.9–59.1 in
137–150 cm

Weight

56.4–77.6 oz 
1600–2200 g

Relative Size

Slightly smaller than a Turkey Vulture; slightly larger than a Red-tailed Hawk.

Other Names

• Urubu noir (French)
• Zopilote común (Spanish)

Cool Facts

• In the U.S., Black Vultures are outnumbered by their red-headed relatives, Turkey Vultures, but they have a huge range and are the most numerous vulture in the Western Hemisphere.
• Turkey Vultures have an excellent sense of smell, but Black Vultures aren’t nearly as accomplished sniffers. To find food they soar high in the sky and keep an eye on the lower-soaring Turkey Vultures. When a Turkey Vulture’s nose detects the delicious aroma of decaying flesh and descends on a carcass, the Black Vulture follows close behind.
• One-on-one at a carcass, Black Vultures lose out to the slightly larger Turkey Vulture. But flocks of Black Vultures can quickly take over a carcass and drive the more solitary Turkey Vultures away.
• Black Vultures lack a voice box and so their vocal abilities are limited to making raspy hisses and grunts.
• Although Black Vultures and their relatives live only in North and South America, the oldest fossils from this group—at least 34 million years old—were found in Europe.
• The oldest Black Vulture on record was at least 25 years, 6 months old and they may live even longer in captivity.

Habitat

Open Woodland

Black Vultures live year-round in forested and open areas of the eastern and southern United States south to South America. They have expanded their range northward in the last several decades and are now seen regularly as far north as New England. Most abundant at low elevations, they breed in dense woodlands but usually forage in open habitats and along roads. Some live in semirural suburbs. Black Vultures roost in undisturbed stands of tall trees, including sycamores, pines, hickories, oaks, junipers, and bald cypress, as well as structures like electrical pylons. Roost sites are often close to water and next to obstructions that generate updrafts of air, to help the flock take flight in the early morning.

Food

Carrion

Black Vultures feed almost exclusively on carrion, locating it by soaring high in the skies on thermals. From this vantage they can spot carcasses and also keep an eye on Turkey Vultures—which have a more developed sense of smell—and follow them toward food. Black Vultures often gather in numbers at carcasses and then displace Turkey Vultures from the food. Their carrion diet includes feral hogs, poultry, cattle, donkeys, raccoons, coyotes, opossums, striped skunks, and armadillos. Sometimes Black Vultures wade into shallow water to feed on floating carrion, or to catch small fish. They occasionally kill skunks, opossums, night-herons, leatherback turtle hatchlings, and livestock, including young pigs, lambs, and calves. They also often investigate dumpsters and landfills to pick at human discards.

Nesting

Nesting Facts

Clutch Size

1–3 eggs

Number of Broods

1 broods

Egg Length

2.6–3.5 in 
6.6–9 cm

Egg Width

1.8–2.2 in 
4.5–5.6 cm

Incubation Period

38–39 days

Nestling Period

70–98 days

Egg Description

Pale green or sometimes bluish white, usually with a few large brown blotches on the larger end.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and covered with thick yellowish or pinkish down, with open eyes.

Nest Description

Black Vultures lay their eggs directly on the ground.

Nest Placement

Cliff

Black Vultures usually nest in dark cavities such as caves, hollow trees, abandoned buildings, brush piles, thickets, and stumps. Pair reuse successful sites for many years.

Behavior

Soaring

Black Vultures are monogamous, staying with their mates for many years, all year round. They feed their young for as many as eight months after fledging, and maintain strong social bonds with their families throughout their lives. Black Vultures roost in large flocks in the evening, using the communal roost as a meeting place where foraging groups can assemble and adults can reconvene with their young. Unsuccessful foragers can locate food by following their roost mates to carcasses. Black Vultures aggressively prevent nonrelatives from joining them at roosts or following them to food sources. They attack each other by pecking, biting, wing-pummeling, and foot-grappling. At carcasses Black Vultures are subordinate to Crested Caracaras as well as (farther south in their range) King Vultures and Andean Condors.

Conservation

status via IUCN

Least Concern

Black Vultures are numerous and their populations have increased in the U.S. over the last half-century, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population of this very wide-ranging bird at about 20 million, with about 9 percent living in the U.S. and 8 percent in Mexico. They rate a 5 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score and are not on the 2012 Watch List. In the 1800s people regarded Black Vultures as beneficial scavengers and tolerated them around meat markets in the southeastern U.S. This attitude changed in the early twentieth century, when some people became concerned about vultures spreading disease (despite a dearth of scientific evidence). Vultures were trapped, poisoned and shot by the thousands until the 1970s. Black Vultures have also faced threats including fewer available nest sites and collisions with cars. Like other large birds they were vulnerable to egg-thinning effects of DDT in the mid-twentieth century, and along with other carrion-eaters they are susceptible to lead poisoning from lead shot that remains in carcasses. However, Black Vultures have rebounded and expanded their range considerably to the north and east. This is probably due in part to increasing availability of roadkill and warmer temperatures associated with global climate change.

Black Vulture

© Gerrit Vyn

With sooty black plumage, a bare black head, and neat white stars under the wingtips, Black Vultures are almost dapper. Whereas Turkey Vultures are lanky birds with teetering flight, Black Vultures are compact birds with broad wings, short tails, and powerful wingbeats. The two species often associate: the Black Vulture makes up for its poor sense of smell by following Turkey Vultures to carcasses. Highly social birds with fierce family loyalty, Black Vultures share food with relatives, feeding young for months after they’ve fledged.