Vultures
Vultures are a group of carrion-eating birds that play a crucial role in their ecosystems by consuming dead animals, thus preventing decay and the spread of disease. They are found in a range of habitats across temperate to tropical regions, including the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Vultures are characterized by their bare heads and necks, which help them stay clean while feeding. There are two main groups: Old World vultures, which are related to eagles and inhabit Europe, Asia, and Africa, and New World vultures, found in the Americas, which are more closely related to storks based on DNA analysis.
New World vultures, such as the turkey vulture and the California condor, lack the ability to vocalize and are known for their impressive soaring abilities, utilizing thermal updrafts to cover large distances while scavenging for food. Old World vultures, including species like the griffon and bearded vultures, exhibit similar feeding habits but display distinctive characteristics and appearances. Vultures typically nest on bare ground or in caves, laying eggs that both parents incubate and care for. These birds are not only fascinating due to their unique adaptations and behaviors but also critical to maintaining ecological balance.
Vultures
Vulture Facts
Classification:
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Subphylum: Vertebrata
- Class: Aves
- Order: Accipitriformes
- Family: Accipitridae (includes eagles, hawks, and Old World vultures); Cathartidae (New World vultures)
- Genera: Old World vultures, nine genera:Aegypius,Gypaetus ,Gypohierax,Gyps,Necrosyrtes,Neophron,Sarcogyps,Torgos,Trigonoceps; New World vultures, five genera:Cathartes,Coragyps,Gymnogyps,Sarcoramphus,Vultur
- Geographical location: Temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa
- Habitat: Mountains, deserts, and other regions where carrion is available
- Gestational period: Up to four months
- Life span: Fifteen to fifty years, depending on species
- Special anatomy: No feathers on head or neck; weak and blunt claws; New World vultures lack larynxes and thus lack voices
Vultures comprise two groups of carrion-eating birds. They are useful because they eat carrion, which otherwise might decay and endanger the health of other animals. The twenty-three vulture species inhabit temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
All vultures exhibit similar eating habits, behavior, and appearance, including bare heads and necks. Many also have somber-colored feathers. Vultures of Europe, Asia, and Africa (Old World vultures) arise from eaglelike birds. Vultures of the Americas (New World vultures), similar in appearance to Old World vultures due to convergent evolution, were once placed in their own family within the Falconiformes order. By the late twentieth century, they were placed in the Ciconiiformes order with storks and herons. Based on DNA analysis, however, New World vultures were placed in their own family, the Cathartidae, within the Accipitriformes order. However, some ornithologists have suggested the New World vultures should be part of their own order called the Cathartiformes.
Some Characteristics of Vultures
Vultures have bare heads and necks and hooked bills. Carrion is their main food, and on some occasions they attack newborn or wounded animals. Most hunt by long-distance soaring to scavenge with their keen sight. New World vultures differ from Old World vultures in their lack of the ability to vocalize. Seven species compose New World vultures, including five vultures and two condors. Three live in North America. Turkey vultures are found across the United States and Mexico as well as Central and South America. Black vultures inhabit the southern United States and Central and South America. Endangered California condors are found in southern California, northern Arizona, and southern Utah as well as northern Baja California. King vultures, Andean condors, and the greater and lesser yellow-headed turkey vultures live in Central and South America.
There are sixteen Old World vulture species. Among the most interesting are the cinereous (with a color resembling ashes) vultures of southwestern and central Europe, Turkey, the central Middle East, and central Asia; the griffon vultures of southern Europe, north Africa, and Asia; Egyptian vultures found from the Mediterranean to India; and the bearded vultures of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Vultures lack feathers on their heads and necks, which keeps them free of gore from carrion. Among New World vultures, several have interesting appearances. Black vultures have black heads and plumage, with white feathers under the wings. King vultures, in contrast, have feathered neck ruffs and yellow, red, white, and blue heads.
California condors, the largest North American land birds, average four feet in length, with wingspans up to eleven feet. They have black neck ruffs, bald, orange to yellow heads, and black plumage except for white feathers under wings. Andean condors are similar.
Notable among Old World vultures are cinereous vultures, about four feet long with bare, pinkish heads and black feathers. They inhabit Europe, northwest Africa, and Central Asia. Griffon vultures are similar in size and appearance. Egyptian vultures, two feet long, have yellow heads and white feathers except for black wings. They inhabit Mediterranean areas and are found as far east as India.
Bearded vultures are especially interesting. They live on Asian, African, and European mountains. They have tan plumage on the chest and stomach and dark brown wing and tail plumage. Bearded vultures have red eyes in white heads. Conspicuous black feathers surrounding the eyes end in beardlike tufts and led to the name “bearded.” These vultures average four feet long and weigh up to twenty-four pounds. Their huge wings allow soaring for hours on thermal updrafts. Bearded vultures are unusual in building large, conical nests on or in rock ledges or caves. A mated, monogamous pair uses the nests many times.
Life Cycles of Vultures
Most vultures nest on bare ground underneath mountain overhangs, or in caves. They build no nests, and females lay eggs on bare rock. After hatching, both parents feed the chicks partly digested carrion regurgitated into their mouths. For example, Andean condors live in mountain caves, and females lay one or two greenish-white to bluish-white eggs on the cave floor. Both parents incubate the eggs until they hatch. The scarcity of the California condor is partly due to the fact that it lays only one egg at two- to three-year intervals. Young condors fly in six months, but parents feed them for another eighteen months. Andean condors first mate at seven years old, and at two-year intervals after that. They are monogamous and may live for forty-five to fifty years. Bearded vultures, as noted, are unusual in building several nests used over and over. The female lays her eggs, incubates them, and feeds chicks with the help of the male.
Principal Terms
carrion: corpses of dead animals
New World vultures: storklike vultures of the Americas
Old World vultures: hawklike vultures of Europe, Asia, and Africa
thermal updraft: rising air currents, encountered where the sun warms the air
Bibliography
Campbell, Michael O'Neal. Vultures: Their Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation. Boca Raton: CRC, 2015. Print.
Grady, Wayne. Vulture: Nature’s Ghastly Gourmet. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1997. Print.
Hackett, Shannon J., et al. "A Phylogenomic Study of Birds Reveals Their Evolutionary History." Science 320.5884 (2008): 1763–68. Print.
Mundy, Peter, Duncan Butchart, John Ledger, and Steven Piper. The Vultures of Africa. San Diego: Academic, 1992. Print.
Ogada, Darcy, et al. "Another Continental Vulture Crisis: Africa's Vultures Collapsing toward Extinction." Conservation Letters 9.2 (2016): 89–97. Print
Stone, Lynn M. Vultures. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda, 1993. Print.
Wilbur, Sanford R., and Jerome A. Jackson. Vulture Biology and Management. Berkeley: U of California P, 1983. Print.