Vultures

While we typically swoon over the sight of our beautiful water birds and sweet songbirds here at Grand Harbor, there are two birds that provide a more basic function, the Black Vulture, and the Turkey Vulture. Both birds feast on carrion, which is dead animals. This service for us actually reduces the spread of disease. They have excellent immune systems feeding on carcasses without contracting botulism, anthrax, cholera, or salmonella. They find food by soaring high in the skies on thermals where they can spot carcasses. The Black Vulture keeps an eye on Turkey vultures which has a more developed sense of smell. Since Black Vultures are slightly smaller than Turkey Vultures, they lose out at eating sites unless approaching the site in a flock and then they can drive the Turkey Vultures away. The Black Vultures will occasionally eat live animals.

The Black Vulture has a black head weighing 3.5-5 pounds with a wingspan of up to 5 feet, while the Turkey Vulture has a red head and weighs about 4.5 pounds with a wingspan of up to 6.5 feet.  Both birds make large nests in trees or caves where they will lay 1-3 eggs with an incubation period of 35-40 days. Once hatched the young stay in the nest for 65-90 days. Both hatchlings are helpless at birth. The Black Vulture baby will be covered with yellowish or pinkish down with open eyes. The Turkey Vulture baby will be covered in creamy white down and is often blind with only a quiet hiss for defense.

Both breeds have increased in number over the last 50 years. Vultures were poisoned and shot by the thousands until the 1970’s. They have also been threatened by side-effects of the pesticide DDT in the mid-20th century. They remain susceptible to lead poisoning from lead shot that remains in carcasses left by hunters. The first lead ammunition ban was in 1990 for waterfowl. In 2013 California became the first state to ban all lead ammunition. Otherwise it is still in use today although various organizations work toward a federal ban.

It is not at all unusual to see groupings of these birds sitting on the ground or soaring high in the sky around Grand Harbor.

​