Turkey vulture

The turkey vulture is the most widespread of the New World vultures. One of three species in the genus Cathartes of the family Cathartidae, the turkey vulture ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of South America. It inhabits a variety of open and semi-open areas, including subtropical forests, shrublands, pastures, and deserts.
Like all New World vultures, it is not closely related to the Old World vultures of Europe, Africa, and Asia. However, the two groups strongly resemble each other due to convergent evolution.
The turkey vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion. It finds its food using its keen eyes and sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gasses produced by the early stages of decay in dead animals. In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings infrequently. It roosts in large community groups. Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses. It nests in caves, hollow trees, or thickets. Each year it generally raises two chicks, which it feeds by regurgitation. It has very few natural predators. In the United States, the vulture receives legal protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Names

It is also known in some North American regions as a "buzzard" or "turkey buzzard," which in the Old World instead refers to members of the genus Buteo. In some areas of the Caribbean it is known as the "John crow" or "carrion crow."

Taxonomy

The turkey vulture received its common name from the resemblance of the adult's bald red head and dark plumage to that of the male wild turkey, while the name "vulture" is derived from the Latin word vulturus, meaning "tearer", and is a reference to its feeding habits. The word buzzard is used by North Americans to refer to this bird, yet in the Old World that term refers to members of the genus Buteo. The turkey vulture was first formally described by Carl Linnaeus as Vultur aura in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and characterised as "V. fuscogriseus, remigibus nigris, rostro albo". It is a member of the family Cathartidae, along with the other six species of New World vultures, and included in the genus Cathartes, along with the greater yellow-headed vulture and the lesser yellow-headed vulture. Like other New World vultures, the turkey vulture has a diploid chromosome number of 80.
The taxonomic placement of the turkey vulture and the remaining six species of New World vultures has been in flux. Though both are similar in appearance and have similar ecological roles, the New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors in different parts of the world. Some earlier authorities suggested that the New World vultures were more closely related to storks. More recent authorities maintained their overall position in the order Accipitiformes along with the Old World vultures or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes.
However, recent genetic studies indicate that neither New World nor Old World vultures are close to falcons, nor are New World vultures close to storks. Both are basal members of the clade Afroaves, with Old World vultures comprising several groups within the family Accipitridae, also containing eagles, kites, and hawks, while New World vultures in Cathartiformes are a sister group to Accipitriformes.

Distribution and habitat

The turkey vulture has a large range, with an estimated global occurrence of. It is the most widely distributed vulture in the Americas and rivals its cousin the black vulture as the most abundant raptorial bird worldwide. Its global population is estimated to be 18,000,000 individuals. It is found in open and semi-open areas throughout the Americas from southern Canada to Cape Horn. It is a permanent resident in the southern United States, though northern birds may migrate as far south as South America. The turkey vulture is widespread over nearly all American habitats but they tend to show particular habitat preferences. It is most commonly found in relatively open areas which juxtapose with woodland, which are important both for nesting and roosting. Furthermore, turkey vultures in North America generally avoid enclosed forested areas that may hamper their ability to take flight and tend to often favor hill or low mountainous areas that make catching flight easier with less effort. This species can be seen over open country, including grasslands but are often absent from completely treeless areas such as some parts of the prairies or Great Plains. Additionally, they may adapt to tropical and subtropical forests, shrublands, deserts and semi-desert, wetlands and foothills. Evidence indicates agricultural land is key habitat for turkey vultures, mainly pastureland or other low-input farmland for foraging and roosting but they tend to only occur ephemerally as flyovers around row-crop type agriculture. Other manmade habitats can be used, with the species regularly seen over urban areas throughout its range, though they tend to use them more when not breeding, being unable to nest without appropriate habitats, and do not occur as an urban bird nearly as routinely as do black vultures in the tropics and subtropics.
This bird with its crow-like aspect gave foot to the naming of the Quebrada de los Cuervos in Uruguay, where they dwell together with the lesser yellow-headed vulture and the black vulture.

Subspecies

There are five subspecies of turkey vulture:

Image	Subspecies	Common name	Description	Distribution
	C. a. aura Linnaeus, 1758	Antillean turkey vulture	The nominate subspecies. Occasionally overlaps its range with other subspecies. The smallest of the subspecies, but nearly indistinguishable from C. a. meridionalis in color.	From Mexico south through South America and the Greater Antilles.
	C. a. jota Molina, GI 1782	Chilean turkey vulture	Larger, browner, and slightly paler than C. a. ruficollis. Secondary feathers and wing coverts may have gray margins.	It is found all the way to the Andes in Colombia, all the way to southern Argentina.
	C. a. meridionalis Swann, 1921	Western turkey vulture	A synonym for C. a. teter. C. a. teter was identified as a subspecies by Friedman in 1933, but in 1964 Alexander Wetmore separated the western birds, which took the name meridionalis, which was applied earlier to a migrant from South America.	Breeds from southern Manitoba, southern British Columbia, central Alberta and Saskatchewan south to Baja California, south-central Arizona, southeastern New Mexico, and south-central Texas. It is the most migratory subspecies, migrating as far as South America, where it overlaps the range of the smaller C. a. aura. It differs from the eastern turkey vulture in color, as the edges of the lesser wing coverts are darker brown and narrower.
	C. a. ruficollis Spix, 1824	Tropical turkey vulture	Darker and more black than C. a. aura, with brown wing edgings which are narrower or absent altogether. Head and neck are dull red with yellow-white or green-white markings. Adults generally have a pale yellow patch on the crown of the head.	Found in Panama south through Uruguay and Argentina. It is also found on the island of Trinidad.
	C. a. septentrionalis Wied-Neuwied, 1839	Eastern turkey vulture	Eastern and western turkey vultures differ in tail and wing proportions. It is less migratory than C. a. meridionalis and rarely migrates to areas south of the United States.	From southeastern Canada south through the eastern United States.

Description

A large bird, it has a wingspan of, a length of, and weight of. Birds in the northern limit of the species' range average larger in size than the vulture from the neotropics. 124 birds from Florida averaged while 65 and 130 birds from Venezuela were found to average, respectively. It displays minimal sexual dimorphism; sexes are identical in plumage and in coloration, and are similar in size. The body feathers are mostly brownish-black, but the flight feathers on the wings appear to be silvery-gray beneath, contrasting with the darker wing linings. The adult's head is small in proportion to its body and is red in color with few to no feathers. It also has a relatively short, hooked, ivory-colored beak. The irises of the eyes are gray-brown; legs and feet are pink-skinned, although typically stained white. The eye has a single incomplete row of eyelashes on the upper lid and two rows on the lower lid.
The two front toes of the foot are long and have small webs at their bases. Tracks are large, between in length and in width, both measurements including claw marks. Toes are arranged in the classic, anisodactyl pattern. The feet are flat, relatively weak, and poorly adapted to grasping; the talons are also not designed for grasping, as they are relatively blunt. In flight, the tail is long and slim. The black vulture is relatively shorter-tailed and shorter-winged, which makes it appear rather smaller in flight than the turkey vulture, although the body masses of the two species are roughly the same. The nostrils are not divided by a septum, but rather are perforate; from the side one can see through the beak. It undergoes a molt in late winter to early spring. It is a gradual molt, which lasts until early autumn. The immature bird has a gray head with a black beak tip; the colors change to those of the adult as the bird matures.
Captive longevity is not well known. As of 2025, there is one captive bird which is 51 years old: a male named Lord Richard that lives at the Lindsay Wildlife Experience in Walnut Creek, California. Lord Richard hatched in 1974 at Randall Museum in San Francisco and arrived at Lindsay Wildlife later that year. Another turkey vulture named Nero lived to the age of 47. Nero also hatched in 1974 and was taken from his nest for research studies at the University of Wisconsin. He later became an education ambassador at Carpenter Nature Center in Hastings, Minnesota, and in 1993 he joined the education department of the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center. He remained their only educational vulture until his death in 2022.
The oldest wild captured banded bird was 16 years old.
Leucistic turkey vultures are sometimes seen.
Like most other vultures, the turkey vulture has very few vocalization capabilities. Because it lacks a syrinx, it can only utter hisses and grunts.