Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura. Bird. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.

Complete Guide To The Turkey Vulture

ByChristine Species Guides

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture Images

How To Identify Turkey Vultures

  • Turkey Vultures are the larger of the two vulture species found in North Carolina. They grow to , black, raptor-like birds that grow to 28 inches in body length (71 cm) and have wing spans up to 71 inches (180 cm).
    • The Turkey Vulture is one of two vulture species found in North Carolina and is the larger of the two
    • See “Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus)” for more information on the Turkey Vulture’s cousin species.
  • Juveniles have:
    • Two-toned bills that are pale near their heads and dark towards the tip.
    • Smooth-skinned, medium gray heads, with pale pink around the nares.
      • Their heads gradually turn first to pink, then to the red as they develop into adults.
    • Brownish black feathers with minimal to no iridescence.
    • Feathers are edged in dark brown.
  • Male and female Turkey Vultures look similar.
  • Adult Turkey Vultures have:
    • Featherless, wrinkled, red or bright pink heads and upper necks. Some individuals have extensive white tubercles on their skin, while others show tubercles only around the eyes.
      • Turkey Vulture necks are very flexible. They can retract or extend the skin, which makes the featherless portion appear smaller or larger.
    • Glossy green-purple iridescent feathers on lower neck.
    • Narrow, ivory-colored bills.
    • Black-brown body and leg feathers with iridescence, especially along back feathers and after molting.
      • Plumage may be splattered with excrement released from vultures who perched on higher roosts while the birds roosted communally.
    • Brown-black wing feathers except for primary and secondary flight feathers, which are pale gray underneath.
    • Wedge-shaped tail extends several inches past folded wings and is brown-black above and dark gray below.
    • Pink legs appear chalky-white due to accumulated excrement (see information about urohydrosis below).
  • In flight, Turkey Vultures:
    • Hold their wings angled slightly up from a flat plane while gliding.
    • Show a wide band of light gray feathers when seen from below.
    • Have very stable, gliding flight, often swooping in wide circles.
  • Juvenile Turkey Vultures look similar to Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus), as both have gray heads.
    • Tail length differentiates them.
    • Turkey Vultures have much longer tails than Black Vultures.
  • The pattern of dark and pale feathers on the underside of their wings distinguish Turkey Vultures from Black Vultures in flight:
    • Turkey Vultures show a broad band of pale gray feathers along the length of their outstretched wings.
    • Black Vultures show white only on the outer six primary feathers.

Turkey Vulture Notes

  • Turkey Vultures live throughout North Carolina; they are both widely distributed and abundant.
    • Look for Turkey Vultures:
      • In forested and semi-open areas, either on high perches or on the ground.
      • In the air, soaring.
  • Turkey Vultures usually fly low and often skim the treetops at high speed but they can soar quite high as well.
  • Food and Feeding
    • Although these birds roost communally, they are usually solitary when searching for food.
    • Turkey Vultures are aerial scavengers that feed on any type and size of dead creature, both fresh and well-decayed.
      • Unlike their smaller cousin, the Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) which finds food by sight, the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) finds food by smelling it.
      • Turkey Vultures fly at low altitudes and soar great distances as they constantly smell the air for the odor of decaying flesh.
    • Because they can smell so well, Turkey Vultures are better at finding food than Black Vultures.
      • They are usually the first to find an edible carcass, often find smaller prey that Black Vultures miss, and can find food hidden beneath vegetation that Black Vultures can’t see from the sky.
      • But Turkey Vultures are solitary and mild-mannered compared to their Black Vultures cousins. A single Turkey Vulture is often driven off its food by a gang of aggressive Black Vultures, who’ve watched the Turkey Vulture find the food, then followed to steal it away.
  • Behavior
    • Turkey Vultures are solitary except for roosting, when many dozens of individuals congregate in communal roosts.
      • They perch on any exposed, elevated object, including man-made structures like telecommunications antennas.
      • Turkey Vultures sun themselves frequently, more often than Black Vultures.
        • In study examining how individuals of the two vulture species behave while perched in winter, Turkey Vultures sunned themselves 23% of the time, compared to Black Vultures who sunned themselves approximately 9% of the time (Byman 2000, https://doi.org/10.1656/1092-6194(2000)007[0297:BOTABV]2.0.CO;2)
        • The birds turn their bodies either towards or away from the sun and spread their wings so that their bodies can absorb solar radiation.
    • Turkey Vultures urinate on their legs, a practice called “urohydrosis“.
      • Urohydrosis offers this species two important benefits:
        • First, urinating on their legs helps Turkey Vultures regulate their body temperatures. Evaporating urine carries excess heat away from the birds.
        • Second, the vultures’ urine contains very strong acids, which helps kill or control potentially harmful microorganisms on their legs.
  • Mating and Reproduction
    • Turkey Vultures don’t build nests in trees. Instead, they nest on the ground, usually hidden by dense vegetation or in hollow logs or caves.
      • This makes the eggs and nestlings vulnerable to terrestrial predators like Rat Snakes (Elaphe obsoleta) and Coyotes (Canis latrans).
    • In North Carolina, females usually lay 2 eggs in April. Both sexes incubate the eggs, which hatch after around 40 days.
    • Both parents feed the nestlings by regurgitating partially digested food.
  • Threats
    • As adults, Turkey Vultures have no predators beyond humans, who shoot, poison, or hit them with cars. Vultures are also electrocuted sometimes by contact with power lines or antennas and towers.

Turkey Vulture Classification

  • Turkey Vultures, and their cousin species Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus) were once classified as true diurnal raptors in the order Falconiformes.
    • Many field guides include vultures in the Raptors section, along with hawks, eagles, and falcons.
    • Vultures can sometimes be mistaken for raptors in flight, especially the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
  • But vultures have many traits not shared by true raptors but that are shared by birds in the New World Stork family Ciconiidae, such as:
    • Inability to grasp objects with their feet.
    • Urohydrosis.
    • Limited to no voice.
    • Rest on their chests and bellies.
  • Therefore, vultures are included on the Flying Landbirds page.

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Ciconiiformes

Family

Cathartidae (New World Vultures)

Genus

Cathartes

Species

C. aura

Binomial Name

Cathartes aura

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Christine
Christine is the creator and author of NowIWonder.com, a website dedicated to the animals and plants that share our world, and the science that helps us understand them. Inspired by lifelong exploration and learning, Christine loves to share her knowledge with others who want to connect with wild faces and wild spaces.
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