I am in America at present and we keep seeing Turkey buzzards circling over head. Havent managed to get a picture of one yet but they are amazing. Sometimes they are alone and other times in groups of 4 or 5. I was wondering how long they lived for and what they ate.

I've never been to America, and I haven't seen a Turkey Buzzard before either, they sound great though. A picture would be brilliant!

I've also moved this to the off-topic section as it is not about UK birds.

Where are you in the States? There's Turkey Vultures (known as TVs!), and then there's Black Vultures.

All the vultures live mostly on carrion, although the Turkey Vulture will also eat vegetable matter and live insects. Turkey vultures are the most widespread, occurring all the way from Cape Horn in South America, up to southern Canada. They are also migratory, having left the Pacific Northwest for the winter now. They have red, naked skin on their heads.

Black Vultures also occur in the US, mostly in the southeastern states. They are essentially black, with a greyish looking head.

Both of the vultures (which are not related to the Old World vultures, by the way) have a very good sense of smell, and locate their food that way.

I believe that Turkey vultures can live up to twenty years, but don't quote me on that!

Kingfisher

Hi Kingfisher,
I was in Orlando. Apologies for calling them by the wrong name!! (turkey buzzards instead of turkey vultures!)
Its amazing that they live for so long and they are incredible birds. The netting around the pool made it hopeless to get a good picture, and I only tended to see them when I was there.
They look very different to how I think of vultures.
What would their wing span be at as guess?
Jane

Both the black and turkey vultures can be found in Florida, but the turkey vulture's wingspan is around 68-75 inches, and the black vulture is smaller, at around 60 inches maximum.

If you managed to see any Bald Eagles whilst in Florida, you might be astonished to learn that the TV's wingspan is as great as a small Bald Eagle!

Do you know which one you were seeing? Or did you see both species of vultures?

Kingfisher

I really do not know, they were not black in colour more reddy brown I think. I wish I had taken more notice of them now. They were pretty big birds though and amazingly graceful. Oh well I will have to go back and take a better look! (any excuse!!)
Sadly I did not see Bald eagles.
Jane

I am wondering now if you were really looking at vultures?

Could you have been looking at Red-tailed Hawks?

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBir..._Hawk.html

The UK/European term 'Buzzard' = a bird in the genus Buteo , which in the US is simply a 'Hawk'.

If this bird existed in the UK, you might very well call the Red-tailed Hawk the Red-tailed Buzzard...

Kingfisher

Are these the turkey vultures? We saw these in Lanzarote earlier in the year & I didn't know what they were. These were well looked after but I would much rather see them flying in the wild though, Jane.
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This post was last modified: 23-10-2007 06:43 PM by tibbar.