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Vultures keep ecosystems healthy.  When vultures feed on carrion, they clear away carcasses, leaving only the bones and some fur and hide for decomposers to recycle.  Nature has adapted their stomach acids to destroy harmful bacteria that cause diseases (such as cholera, botulism, anthrax). They don’t get sick from eating bacteria-infested rotting flesh.  Even their excreta (poop) is disease-free.  Only some spores can survive the digestive 
tract.

Article: Vultures Remarkably Tolerant to Deadly Bacteria, Study Reveals By John Barrat in Conservation Biology, Research News, Zoology, November 25, 2014
http://smithsonianscience.org/2014/11/vultures-remarkably-tolerant-to-deadly-bacteria-study-reveals/

PHOTO Copyright: iano50   IAN'S OBSERVATIONS:  These 3, a Raven and 2 Turkey Vultures struck it rich when they came upon this small deer half eaten in a farmers field in British Columbia's interior. The Turkey Vultures usually show up after the predator eats all he can and leaves. Cougars, coyote and possibly wild dogs are in the area.

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 Photo: Jerry Kirkheart  CC BY 2.0 www.flickr.com/photos/jkirkhart35/6209252348 

Turkey vultures can track the scent of its prey by smell.   They can detect carrion even if it’s buried under vegetation.  Odor molecules of ethyl mercaptan (the smelly gas released by animals upon death) flow through their perforated nares (nostrils).



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Photo  © Patricia Henschen

What's that pink bulge?  It's a crop, a throat pouch, that is filled with food the vulture has just eaten.  The crop is an expandable throat pouch that is part of the esophagus.  Food is  temporarily stored in the crop and partially digested there. It slowly makes  its way to the stomach.  Parents regurgitate the softened food from their crop to feed their chicks.  
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Turkey vultures have bald heads to keep blood, flesh, and parasites from sticking to their heads.   

Above image: NECK FEATHERS PULLED DOWN FOR FEEDING. 
PHOTO: LINDA TANNER CC BY 2.0  www.flickr.com/photos/goingslo/8312173085

LINDA'S OBSERVATIONS: Turkey Vulture On Carcass: 
It is salmon season and fishermen are cleaning their catches on the side of the river, tossing heads and skeletons for the birds to devour. I missed a picture of the Bald Eagle who swooped down to see if there was any meat left on these bones
Some experts believe that New World vultures (vultures that live in the American continents) are more closely related to storks than to raptors.


The vulture lacks a syrinx, the vocal organ of birds. It can only grunt and hiss.  Its hiss is loud and sounds like the suction of a vacuum.  Listen to the sounds of chicks, juveniles and adults at: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Turkey_Vulture/sounds

 Watch & Hear Chicks Hiss at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCc8ZJhAIn8   Video from Raptor Resource Project's Vulture Cam.


It urinates and defecates on its legs to cool itself in hot temperatures because it does not have sweat glands.  

If threatened, turkey vultures will vomit and play dead. They cannot projectile vomit because they have weak jaw muscles.  But the stench of their vomit works to deter predators.  They also vomit to lighten their loads so it's easier to flee danger.

The vulture has weak muscles in its jaw and feet so it cannot carry off prey in its beak or talons.  Its beak is not designed to stab prey.  It can tear small pieces from carrion that has been softened by decomposition, crushed by a vehicle, or opened by other scavengers.  

Turkey vultures are social.  They form large roosts, except during breeding season.
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PHOTO: STEPHEN LITTLE CC BY-NC 2.0 STEPHEN'S OBSERVATIONS: Vultures Take Wing, Lincoln, Virginia. There are nearly 100 vultures in the trees. www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_little/8508084015
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NECK FEATHERS PULLED UP FOR WARMTH.

Photo: RACHID H  CC BY-NC 2.0  Sparta, New Jersey www.flickr.com/photos/rachidh/
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Photo Copyright: John Carton. Chicks at 36 days old. Chicks have dark heads.
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Juveniles have dark heads until they are about a year-old. Photo Copyright John Carton, Raptor Resource Project. Juvenile Turkey Vulture
PicturePHOTO: Doug Wertman CC BY 2.0 www.flickr.com/photos/nanoprobe67/6132081090
Turkey vultures angle their wings in a V when soaring to help stabilize their flight on wind currents. They teeter when they soar because their wings are large for their body size.
PicturePhoto Copyright: Oskana Perkins, Shutterstock


















Turkey Vultures pose with wings spread out to dry feathers to get them flight ready. The heat from the sun can also straighten bent feathers.
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Vulture Roost PHOTO COPYRIGHT: MARK RYAN, writer & and photographer, Minneapolis, http://rynoceras.wix.com/mark-ryan-photographics