The Clean Up Crew

I know Vultures are not considered by most to be very attractive or desirable species to encounter, but, I'll admit, I find these scavengers to be quite interesting. I will say Vultures are definitely not a species I seek out to observe, but I find do quite regularly  see these birds in my everyday travels. Most of these photos were taken last week at Kelly Park in Merritt Island. There are two species of vultures that reside here in Florida, the Turkey Vulture and the Black Vulture.

Black Vulture

Black Vultures are, you guessed it, large, solid black birds with wrinkled, featherless heads.

Juvenile Black Vulture

Juvenile Black Vultures are a touch more pleasing to view as their heads sport a fuzzy, peach fuzz appearance.

Juvenile Black Vulture

 Turkey Vultures are easy to distinguish from Black Vultures as they have bright red, wrinkley heads. Black Vultures also have shorter wings and tails than Turkey Vultures.

Turkey Vulture

Turkey and Black Vultures can be frequently seen soaring the skies in their quest to find a meal. Both vultures feed primarily on the carcasses of dead animals and fish.

 It always amazes me how quickly a large group of them will arrive after the unfortunate demise of a poor critter. For Turkey Vultures this is thanks to their keen sense of smell. Black Vultures utilize vision to a greater extent than Turkey Vultures to locate food.  Black Vultures are the more social of the two species and tend to stick together in larger flocks. On this day there were a handful of Black Vultures and only one Turkey Vulture, but the Turkey Vulture definitely seemed to be dominating the small dead fish they were all gathered around.

Fresh fish is definitely not a requirement of these birds!