Turkey Vulture

(Cathartes aura)

Fester, Vader and Edwina

• Turkey vultures range from southern Canada to South America, with a wingspan up to 6 feet.
• Graceful flyers, they ride thermals and rarely flap their wings.
• They eat carrion, keeping clean with featherless heads, and up to 50% of their diet is vegetation.
• They preen 2-3 hours daily, and their disease-free droppings result from a bacteria-killing digestive system.
• Roosting in large groups, they return to the same trees for decades.
• Mated pairs lay 2 eggs on the ground and raise their young.
• Turkey vultures are not endangered, but the California condor is critically endangered.