New World Vultures

Turkey Vulture

Truthahngeier

Cathartes aura

New World Vultures8 photosFirst seen: 10 July 2026

The Turkey Vulture is a large dark scavenger with long wings and a small bare red head in adults. It soars with its wings held in a shallow V and often rocks from side to side. The species feeds mainly on carrion and can locate food partly by smell. It occurs in open country, forest and farmland across much of the Americas. Its bare head remains cleaner than a feathered head when feeding inside carcasses.

ID tip: The shallow V of the wings combined with an unsteady, teetering glide separates it at any distance from the flat-winged Bald Eagle and the stiffer-winged Red-tailed Hawk.

First seen: 10 July 2026 · Burrows Road · 8 photos in the collection.

Places in my records

Locations where this species is supported by a dated first record, an unambiguous single-place outing or a reviewed assignment.

Burrows Road10 July 2026 San Juan Islands13 August 2026

Family: New World Vultures (Cathartidae)
Length: 63–81 cm
Wingspan: 160–183 cm
Regional status: Summer visitor (Pacific Northwest, USA)
Conservation: Least Concern LCIUCN Red List · retrieved 27 August 2026
Habitat: Open country, farmland, roadsides, ridges and coastal bluffs
Diet: Carrion, almost exclusively

Built from verified occurrence records, not drawn by hand. Core range = the countries holding 99% of all records; the rest are scattered or vagrant records. Record counts track where people watch birds as much as where the birds are, so the map shows presence, not abundance. Data: GBIF (CC BY 4.0). Basemap: Natural Earth.

Turkey Vulture

Places in my records

Selected photographs