A couple days ago I made a quick trip to the Jordan Lake Dam to see what was flying around over the river. There wasn’t much going on there that morning but there was a flock of Black Vultures hanging out along the shore soaking up the rays of the rising sun. While many would say these aren’t the prettiest birds I think they’re actually kinda cute lol! It was neat to watch the young ones snuggling together and walking around on the ground like big dopey chickens.
Black Vultures are a year round resident of North Carolina and may be found soaring above all 100 of our counties. They are easily ID’d apart from Turkey Vultures by their dark grey heads vs. the pink color of the Turkey’s. When watching them fly, Black Vultures also have white patches showing on the underside of their wings whereas Turkey Vultures wings are a solid black color.
I mentioned the ID comparisons because Black Vultures are often seen hanging out with Turkey Vultures. Both species are scavengers and often take to skies together in search of a meal. Interestingly, Black Vultures do not have a sense of smell so they rely on the Turkey Vultures keen sense of sniffing out a carcass in order to find food. Often the Black Vultures will fly higher then the Turkey Vultures in oder to see what the Turkey’s find below. Once the Turkey Vultures find a food source on the ground, the Black Vultures will swoop down to eat whatever they can snatch away from the Turkey Vultures plate. Crazy huh?!
Spotted a couple Black Vultures scavenging for food along the shore of Jordan Lake last week. It’s not often that a meal is so easy to come by as the catfish the first one found was huge! But as the old saying goes, easy come, easy go!
Did you know that unlike the Turkey Vulture, Black Vultures have no sense of smell? This is why they are often spotted following Turkey Vultures around in order to find food. They let their red faced cousins locate the carrion and then will swoop in to steal the scraps of whatever the Turkey Vultures leave in their wake. Also, have you ever seen a vulture run? It’s like a jerky trotting motion that’s absolutely adorable when their trying to get somewhere in a hurry, lol! watch the video below to see what I mean 🙂
Went
exploring this morning at Jordan Lake dam in New Hill, NC and found
this Black Vulture sitting in the grass overlooking the water. What a
fascinating bird to see up close! Most vultures have bare skin on
their heads. One of the reasons why is this keeps the blood from their
meals from matting into their feathers. Another possibility is that
this bare skin helps cool the bird down on hot days, depending on how
far out they extend their neck’s. By changing their posture to
expose more or less of the bare skin on their heads and necks, vultures
could cut their heat loss by half in cold conditions and increase their
heat loss by almost a quarter in certain hot conditions, like those
which are found around here in North Carolina during the summer. 🙂 Photo by @sally_siko .
While photographing distant Bald Eagles at Jordan Lake, a Black
Vulture flew directly over my head and landed in the sand about 15ft
away. I’d never seen one so close and watched as he spread his wings and sat there soaking up the sun. Clearly he didn’t care one bit by my presence and I was able to get quite a few photos at close range. What an interesting bird! I’ve
learned that they lay their eggs in places such as hollow tree stumps,
between large rocks, or in caves; and decorate the area around with
shards of glass, bright pieces of plastic, and small shiny metal
objects, such as beer bottle tops. Who knew Vultures were into the bling culture, lol! Photo by @sally_siko .
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