Turkey vulture - Cathartes aura

In brief

Cathartes aura, Cathartidae.

- Resident and summer visitor
- Native from southern Canada to Tierra del Fuego
- Scavenger

Where it lives

The whole of the Americas, from southern Canada to Tierra del Fuego. The birds here are at the northern end of a population that moves south for winter.

When you see it

Overhead on most days from spring through fall, riding thermals off the ridge without a wingbeat.

What it eats

Carrion, located by smell. Most birds have almost no sense of smell; this one can find a carcass hidden under a canopy, and gas engineers have used the fact by adding a compound to pipelines that vultures then gather over.

Here

Photographed against the sky. Two field marks name it at any distance: the underwing is two-toned, black in front and silver behind, and it holds its wings in a shallow V rather than flat, rocking as it soars.

A turkey vulture perched on the bare limb of a dead tree against a pale evening sky

On a dead limb in the evening, August 18, 2026.

At roost, and at first light

The perch is the other half of the day: vultures come in to bare snags before dark and roost in company, sometimes dozens to one tree. This one is on a dead limb at seven in the evening, August 18, 2026.

First light brings the posture worth knowing. The bird holds its wings open and still, a stance called the horaltic pose: it warms a body that has cooled overnight and dries feathers wet with dew, and it is done by the time the thermals rise and soaring costs nothing.

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