Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura Scientific name definitions

Wheeling sedately over forests, farmland, coasts, deserts, wetlands, and urban areas, the Turkey Vulture is the most migratory and widely distributed vulture in the Americas. This common and familiar species breeds from southern Canada to southernmost South America and several associated islands. Five subspecies are recognized, distinguished by size, plumage, head coloration, geography and migratory patterns. Three North American subspecies are partly migratory, with millions of the western subspecies, meridionalis, migrating to Central and South America, where they coexist with the resident and migratory Turkey Vulturesubspecies and other vulture species. At least some populations of temperate South American subspecies migrate northward to temperate or tropical sites for the austral winter. The species' broad distribution reflects its soaring capabilities and adaptability for nesting, feeding and thermoregulation.

Named after the Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) because of its bare, red-colored head, the Turkey Vulture is almost exclusively a scavenger (the genus name Cathartes means “purifier”), and it rarely kills small animals or invertebrates. Most reports of vultures killing livestock in North America are attributable to the more aggressive and closely related Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) (1 Kluever, B. M., M. P. Pfeiffer, S. C. Barras, B. G. Dunlap, and L. A. Humberg (2020). Black Vulture conflict and management in the United States: damage trends, management overview, and research needs. Human–Wildlife Interactions 14:376–389. Close ). The Turkey Vulture tends to forage solitarily, but individuals attracted to other feeding vultures often congregate at carcasses. Communal Turkey Vulture roosts facilitate group foraging and social interactions. Roosts range in size from a few birds to several thousand, often including Black Vulture, and are sometimes “advertised” by spectacular evening flights.

The highly developed olfactory sense of the Turkey Vulture enables individuals to locate concealed carcasses beneath vegetative cover, including forest canopies. The Black Vulture often follows the Turkey Vulture to food and sometimes displace them at carcasses through sheer numbers; in response, in some areas the Turkey Vulture specializes in small food items that can be eaten quickly.

The Turkey Vulture occurs in almost all land cover types within its geographic range but is particularly common in open country such as farmland with pasture and abundant carrion close to undisturbed forested areas for perching, roosting, and nesting. The species nests in dark recesses beneath boulders, on cliff ledges, and in caves, hollow trees, logs, stumps, brush piles, and abandoned buildings. In addition to being prone to accumulating pesticides and other contaminants, it has a propensity to feed in agricultural and roadside locations, making it vulnerable to accidental trapping, collisions, electrocution, shooting, and the ingestion of lead from animals that have been shot. Its former persecution as a potential vector of livestock disease or as a predator of young animals has largely ceased, since these allegations have proved false. However, the Turkey Vulture sometimes causes damage to human built structures and fatalities due to aircraft collisions. That said, the Turkey Vulture provides irreplaceable supporting and regulating ecosystem services and is a critical component of ”Nature’s clean-up crew", facilitating nutrient flow within food webs, removing carrion from roads and roadsides, and reducing the transmission of infectious diseases (2 DeVault, T. L., J. C. Beasley, Z. H. Olson, M. Moleón, M. Carrete, A. Margalida, and J. A. Sánchez-Zapata (2016). Ecosystem services provides by avian scavengers. In Why Birds Matter: Avian Ecological Function and Ecosystem Services (C. H. Şekercioğlu, D. G. Wenny, and C. J. Whelan, Editors). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, USA. pp. 235–270. Close , 3 Grilli, M. A., K. L. Bildstein, and S. A. Lambertucci (2019). Nature’s clean-up crew: Quantifying ecosystem services offered by a migratory avian scavenger on a continental scale. Ecosystem Services 39:100990. Close ).

Tolerant of human activity and adaptable in its diet and choice of nest sites, this species has fared well in both natural and human-dominated landscapes; its populations are generally stable or increasing, except for some areas in the western and far southern United States.

The literature on the Turkey Vulture within its northern breeding range is rich, from fascinating early accounts and anecdotes (e.g., 4 Tyler, W. M. (1937). Cathartes aura septentrionalis, Wied. Turkey Vulture. In Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (A. C. Bent, Editor). U.S. National Museum Bulletin 167. pp. 12–28. Close , 5 Work, T. H., and A. J. Wool (1942). The nest life of the Turkey Vulture. Condor 44:149–159. Close ) to more recent studies and reviews (6 Davis, D. (1983). Breeding behavior of Turkey Vultures. In Vulture Biology and Management (S. R. Wilbur and J. A. Jackson, Editors). University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, USA. pp. 271–288. Close , 7 Jackson, J. A. (1983). Nesting phenology, nest site selection, and reproductive success of Black and Turkey vultures. In Vulture Biology and Management (S. R. Wilbur and J. A. Jackson, Editors). University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, USA. pp. 245–270. Close , 8 Jackson, J. A. (1988). Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura. In Handbook of North American Birds. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, USA. Close , 9 Mossman, M. J., and L. M. Hartman (1992). Turkey Vulture nest records from Wisconsin. Passenger Pigeon 54:31–41. Close ). Yet surprisingly little is known about the breeding biology in South and Central America or its ecology in nonbreeding areas (e.g., specific wintering locations for North American subspecies). Because of its social organization and habit of communal roosting, the Turkey Vulture has been the focus of several studies testing whether individuals can learn the location of food from other flock members (10 Prior, K. A., and P. J. Weatherhead (1991). Competition at the carcass – Opportunities for social foraging by Turkey Vultures in southern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Zoology 69:1550–1556. Close , 11 Prior, K. A., and P. J. Weatherhead (1991). Turkey Vultures foraging at experimental food patches: a test of information transfer at communal roosts. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 28:385–390. Close , 12 Buckley, N. J. (1996). Food finding and the influence of information, local enhancement, and communal roosting on foraging success of North American vultures. Auk 113:473–488. Close ). Its use of home range and foraging habitat has been described quantitatively in southern Pennsylvania and northern Maryland (13 Coleman, J. S., and J. D. Fraser (1989). Habitat use and home ranges of Black and Turkey vultures. Journal of Wildlife Management 53:782–792. Close ), and recently in South Carolina and Georgia (14 Holland, A. E., M. E. Byrne, J. Hepinstall-Cymerman, A. L. Bryan, T. L. DeVault, O. E. Rhodes Jr., and J. C. Beasley (2019). Evidence of niche differentiation for two sympatric vulture species in the southeastern United States. Movement Ecology 7:31. Close ), but such information is lacking over much of its range in North America. Research in South America suggests that the North American populations compete with the smaller resident subspecies in some parts of its non-breeding range (15 Kirk, D. A., and J. E. P. Currall (1994). Habitat associations of migrant and resident vultures in central Venezuela. Journal of Avian Biology 25:327–337. Close , 16 Kirk, D. A., and A. G. Gosler (1994). Body condition varies with migration and competition in migrant and resident South American vultures. Auk 111:931–942. Close , 17 Kirk, D. A., and D. C. Houston (1995). Social dominance in migrant and resident vultures at carcasses: Evidence for a despotic distribution? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 36:323–332. Close , 18 Kirk, D. A., J. M. Mallon, R. A McCabe and A. Naveda-Rodríguez. 2023. Foraging shifts in Neotropical Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura ruficollis) in the presence and absence of a northern migrant (C. a. meridionalis), The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 135(3): 356-365. Close ). Niche differentiation and resource segregation may be a more widespread phenomenon among migratory or resident vultures. More recent studies have: (1) deployed satellite tracking devices to obtain exciting new information on movement patterns of migratory Turkey Vulture in different parts of its range (western, interior and eastern North America and interior South America (19 Houston, C. S., P. D. McLoughlin, J. T. Mandel, M. J. Bechard, M. J. Stoffel, D. R. Barber, and K. L. Bildstein (2011). Breeding home ranges of migratory Turkey Vultures near their northern limit. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 123(3):472–478. Close , 20 Hedlin, E. M., C. S. Houston, P. D. McLoughlin, M. J. Bechard, M. J. Stoffel, D. R. Barber, and K. L. Bildstein (2013). Winter ranges of migratory Turkey Vultures in Venezuela. Journal of Raptor Research 47(2):145–152. Close , 21 Dodge, S., G. Bohrer, K. Bildstein, S. C. Davidson, R. Weinzierl, M. J. Bechard, D. Barber, R. Kays, D. Brandes, and J. Han (2014). Environmental drivers of variability in the movement ecology of turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) in North and South America. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 369:2013019520130195. Close ); (2) demonstrated that stopover sites on migration are used in response to poor weather conditions and less so to replenish food reserves (22 Mallon, J. M., K. L. Bildstein, and W. F. Fagan (2021) Inclement weather forces stopovers and prevents migratory progress for obligate soaring migrants. Movement Ecology 9:39. Close ); (3) documented monthly variation in home range and core area use using novel methods (23 Holland, A. E., M. E. Byrne, A. L. Bryan, T. L. DeVault, O. E. Rhodes, and J. C. Beasley (2017). Fine-scale assessment of home ranges and activity patterns for resident Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) and Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura). PLoS ONE 12:e0179819. Close ); (4) revealed previously little-known aspects of breeding behavior from Saskatchewan, including age at first breeding (24 Rollack, C. E., K. Wiebe, M. J. Stoffel, and C. S. Houston (2013). Turkey vulture breeding behavior studied with trail cameras. Journal of Raptor Research 47:153–160. Close ); (5) documented details of undisturbed nesting behavior (Raptor Resource Project; RRP); and (6) reviewed the vital scavenging role of vultures in providing ecosystem services, in response to the precipitous declines in many other vulture species globally (2 DeVault, T. L., J. C. Beasley, Z. H. Olson, M. Moleón, M. Carrete, A. Margalida, and J. A. Sánchez-Zapata (2016). Ecosystem services provides by avian scavengers. In Why Birds Matter: Avian Ecological Function and Ecosystem Services (C. H. Şekercioğlu, D. G. Wenny, and C. J. Whelan, Editors). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, USA. pp. 235–270. Close ).Even though the Turkey Vulture is currently widespread and apparently increasing or expanding its range in many areas, it is subject to many of the same threats as Old World Vultures, which have undergone sudden population declines. It is also a strong bioindicator for other Neotropical vultures, about which little is known (25 Santangeli, A., E. R. Buechley, S. Mammola, and S. A. Lambertucci (2022). Priorities for research and action to prevent a New World vulture crisis. Biological Conservation 270:109563. Close ). Being more abundant and widespread than other Cathartidae (some of which are rare), except for Black Vulture, changes in its numbers can be more closely linked statistically to environmental changes, and it can therefore act as an ‘umbrella’ species.