Vultures are scavenging birds of prey, typically with a bald, featherless head. Vultures are found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Most people in North America are familiar with the turkey vulture, which has a red head, or the black vulture, which is similar in appearance but has a black head. However, there are actually 23 different species of vulture!

Vultures are typically social animals and congregate in flocks, which are called a committee, a venue, or a volt. I flock of vultures in flight is called a kettle and when feeding together, they are, amusingly, called a wake.

Vultures have an excellent sense of sight and smell and feed almost exclusively on carrion. While they prefer fresh meat, they can actually eat meat that is so rotten that it is toxic to other animals. This is a result of the vulture’s stomach acid being much stronger than that of other animals—the acid kills any dangerous bacteria in the rotten meat, preventing the vulture from becoming sick.

I lived in southern Maryland for a while and there were always huge flocks of vultures hanging out in the farmlands I drove through to get to work every day. I’d see them sunning themselves on the roofs of the tobacco barns in the mornings and when the fields were being plowed and fertilized for planting, they’d follow the farm equipment down the field, ready to snatch up any ‘tasty’ treats that got turned up by the plows.

Have you seen any vultures in the wild? Do you have a favorite species? What do you see when you think of a vulture?