THE ANIMAL FILES

Black vulture

Coragyps atratus

A soaring scavenger can find a meal by watching another scavenger.

The black vulture has a bare, wrinkled head, short square tail and pale patches under its outer wings. It often gathers with others, and food-finding combines its own vision with attention to the movements of other vultures.[1]

Follow the evidence ↓
Black vulture
Image: Wdiane · Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Main food
Carrion[1]
Flight mark
White patches near the outer underwings[1]
Social life
Group roosting and group foraging[1]

Watch the wings and tail

Broad, relatively short wings alternate flapping with gliding. The short square tail barely projects beyond the folded wings. White feather bases make conspicuous patches beneath the wings in flight.[1]

Following a better nose

Black vultures locate food by sight or by following Cathartes vultures, including turkey vultures. Those birds can detect odours from decaying animals. Following them supplies a route to carcasses that need not be plainly visible from above.[1]

Arrival is also a social event

Several black vultures may feed together and displace a turkey vulture from a carcass. Group roosting and shared feeding sites make other birds part of both food discovery and competition. Their food is mainly carrion, although other foods are also recorded.[1]

A COMMON MIX-UP

Must all vultures find carcasses in the same way?

No. The black vulture’s visual search and following behaviour differ from the scent-based searching used by Cathartes vultures.[1]

TRY A LITTLE REASONING

Why follow another bird even without seeing a carcass?

Reveal the explanation

The other bird may have detected an odour cue unavailable to a purely visual search. Its movements can reveal where to investigate.[1]

Sources & editorial notes

Adapted and translated from the cited Wikipedia revisions, with source-linked reasoning. Image credit and licence are listed separately above.

Adapted and translated from Wikipedia contributors; exact revisions are linked below. CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. Wikipedia contributors — Black vulture (fixed revision; adapted and translated)
  2. NCBI Taxonomy — Coragyps atratus (identity and classification)

Last fact check:

One discovery leads to another

Andean condorA huge bird can travel on rising air.Vultur gryphus ↗Turkey vultureA smell rising from under leaves can guide a bird above the canopy.Cathartes aura ↗Golden eagleGolden at the nape, variable through youth.Aquila chrysaetos ↗