Turkey Vulture

Look for

A huge dark bird with a bare red head and two-toned underwings (black leading edge, silvery trailing edge). In flight, holds wings in a shallow "V" (dihedral) and tips wobbly from side to side — the classic Turkey Vulture sign, visible from a mile away.

Size: ~26", wingspan ~6 feet.

Listen for

• Turkey Vultures are almost silent — they have no voice box. Occasional hisses or grunts at the roost.

Where in Memphis

Over every roadside, every open field, every riverbank, every landfill. You'll see them circling over Shelby Farms, the Mississippi River bluffs, and every interstate.

Behavior

• Soar for hours without flapping — they catch thermals and can cover 100+ miles a day on wind currents.
• Scavengers only. They eat carrion exclusively. No live-killing.
• Find food by smell. One of the few birds with an excellent sense of smell — they detect carrion from a mile up.
• Roost in huge communal groups — sometimes 100+ birds in a single dead tree at dusk.

Story

The telling-by-smell discovery

For centuries, naturalists argued whether vultures found food by sight or smell. In the 1830s, gas-pipeline engineers discovered that Turkey Vultures would converge on leaky pipes carrying ethyl mercaptan (a compound released by decaying flesh). Gas companies still add mercaptan to natural gas for leak detection — and vultures still circle the leaks.

"Buzzard"

In American English, "buzzard" means vulture. (In Europe, "buzzard" means a hawk — the same confusion that makes our Bald Eagle's scream come from a Red-tailed Hawk.) Southern "buzzard" folklore is extensive — seeing one circling was sometimes considered an omen.

Black Vulture vs Turkey Vulture

Black Vultures (stockier, shorter tail, all-black head, white wingtip patches) are also common around Memphis and often flock together with Turkey Vultures. Blacks are slightly more aggressive; Turkeys have the better nose.

Fun facts

• No feathers on the head — adaptation to keep bacteria out when plunging into carcasses.
• They vomit when threatened — effective deterrent.
• Stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve anthrax, botulism, and rabies — they can eat anything.
• They urinate on their own legs to cool off (this is called urohidrosis) — also a form of disinfection.
• Oldest known wild Turkey Vulture: 30+ years.
• A group of vultures on the ground is called a "wake"; in flight, a "kettle."