The Amazing Turkey Vulture….

We awoke miles away from traffic, to wonderful harmonic sounds of loons, eagles, ravens, and songbirds… conversing in their natural habitat; April is an especially vocal time in the Pacific Northwest… pleasing and invigorating, a perfect reason to enjoy Springtime camping. Chris, Rosie and I were the only campers in this remote Valley hide-a-way, on Northern Vancouver Island.

Snows have melted, carrying away winter silence, replaced by lush new greenery and bird songs heralding new generations of life. A nurturing time for wild kingdom inhabitants. Salmon berry bushes, fawn lilies, and more are blooming, bears are feeding on skunk cabbage, elk & deer have shed their antlers, and the annual rebirth of life has begun.

Our intension this fine crisp Spring morning was to explore a lakeside bush area a few kilometers away…. Simply put, British Columbia has many natural wonders to enjoy in our own North Island backyard. So, with daypacks and cameras we set on a day of exploration.

It is was an easy walk through fresh cool air on a narrow grass covered reforested road, then we cutoff on a relaxed trail through spectacular greens of second growth fir, moist moss, sword fern shards, and purifying lichen.

We could see glimpses of the lake through a screen of Hemlock firs before we broke silently into the headwaters of our destination…. To our surprise a “committee” of a six medium sized brown birds greeted us, roosting along the edge of this remote lakeside bushed area. From a distance they looked like immature eagles, then as we edged closer, the identity became wonderfully apparent…. Turkey Vultures, a lanky brown bird weighing about 1.5 Kgs which is surprising for their 3/4 meter height. They have a wing span of about 1.8 meters). Particularly noticeable are small featherless red head & upper neck, and thin white chicken like featherless legs.

These birds have a sharp hooked beak and usually only seen high in the sky, surveying their lofty domain, teetering from side to side, gliding effortlessly on thermal updrafts. Today, we are fortunate to find them sitting near the ground on tree branch vantage points. Remarkable!

Inexplicably, some humans attach the name “Vulture” as a slang term! The name symbolically represents unscrupulous human practices… slandering the bird’s good name…. Derogatory behaviours such as: “vulture capitalist”, denoting a person who searches out or creates financial misfortune in others to profit by it. Even the Oxford Dictionary maligns this marvel of adaptation by defining vulture as “ a contemptible person who preys on or exploits others”. Despicable attributes totally misrepresentive of Nature’s character.

Vultures are, in fact, highly evolved specialized ecosystem sanitizers… true environmentalists of the wild kingdom. They search out and eat carrion.

Related to the stork family Turkey Vultures are perfectly adapted for their environmental purpose. They are not nefarious or “Buzzards”. While these remarkable birds are flesh eaters, they do not kill animals themselves; lacking a physical body capacity and foot strength to do so that raptors have. In fact Vultures have to take a running start to fly, their skinny legs and wings awkwardly paddling the ground jumping to get into the air. But once airborne they are amazingly graceful flyers, effortlessly rising into the heavens on thermal currents.

Nature has assigned an important task of servitude to this remarkable bird…. to clean up after other “killing” meat eaters. They sanitize and protect the environment by eating animals that are already dead… life ended from natural or other causes that otherwise would be left to decay and pollute. In this regard these extraordinary environmentalists do the dirty work of tidying up carrion helping to keep ecosystems bacteria free and other animals healthy. This bird is thereby a major player preventing the spread of disease in the wild kingdom…. A very noble purpose indeed.

Turkey Vultures figure prominently and kindly in many indigenous stories, about the origins of the bird’s physical features. Some give these fine birds magical life assisting powers. Some indigenous nations call this magnificent bird by the respectful name of “Peace Eagle”, in reverence to the fact this bird does not kill, and only consumes that which is already dead. Even their scientific Latin name “cathartes genus” means “breezy cleanser” or “golden cleanser”, a respectful name for one of nature’s important and gifted environmentalist!

Mark Gunti’s Vulture picture is soulful… Beauty is certainly captured in the eye of the beholder. Western culture look upon vultures with suspicious caution. It is interesting indigenous lore view this wonderful bird as a “Peace Eagle”!

To perform their essential ecological functions Turkey Vultures are doubly blessed with keen eyesight and sense of smell. Moreso than most other animals… It is believed they are able to spot a 90 cm carcass from 6.5 kilometers away….. To detect unseen carrion they have a highly developed olfactory center, that can “smell” carrion only 12 hour old from 1.6 kilometers away…even under a fir canopy. These cleaners will track the origin of the odor gliding high up in the air column and zeroing in on it by flying in circles. They can soar effortlessly for hours on thermal updrafts, traveling for hundreds of kilometers searching for carrion.

In regards to an odoriferous menu, Vultures are perfectly adapted to fight off infection within their own body defense mechanisms. Nature has been innovative and kind providing these cleaners with a singularly specialized immune and digestive system, that efficiently fights disease. The bird is also equipped with personal outer protective attributes that shields it when eating bacteria laced carrion. The small featherless “bald” head and upper neck resist absorption allowing the bird to insert a head completely into a carcass without feather sponging of blood and other body fluids. Surprisingly Turkey Vultures will defecate & urinate on their legs to “clean” and cool their bodies.

They have behaviours unique to their species

• pick their noses – to get the rotting flesh out
• puke on their enemies – if someone gets too close to their nest, they will projectile vomit partially digested rotting flesh and caustic stomach acid at their predators
• they lack the vocal organ that helps birds make songs, so they are left with a series of grunts and hisses
• they have small talons and weak feet unsuitable for capturing prey. Some compare their feet to chicken feet
• turkey vultures have incredibly strong immune systems creating acidic stomach acids to kill the bacteria like the organisms that cause botulism, anthrax, cholera, and salmonella.

Isn’t nature grand… in short Turkey Vultures are an awesome bird of peculiarity having a rare functional beauty fitting their noble ecological purpose. On sunny days, the flat ground is heated causing warm air to rise, allowing the vulture to swoop upward with minimal effort.

Although Turkey Vultures were once trapped, shot, and heavily persecuted as a pest in the past, the species is now recognised as a beneficial scavenger and populations increasing each year by an estimated nearly 2%. Population size however is largely unknown. Aggregations during the Fall migration were estimated in 2015 at 500-1000 birds on southern Vancouver Island. How much of the coastal population this represents is unknown. However, it is thought today there may be 300 nesting pairs laying up to three eggs annually on Vancouver Island secluded hollows, rock crevices, log indentations. We are fortunate these wonderful environmentalists make an annual northward journey…. gliding effortlessly on thermals from southern US areas, traveling as much as 300 km a day to breed and clean right here on Vancouver Island…

A remarkable day and remarkable find… a great hike. I will always smile when viewing natures remarkable avian friends of the Wild Kingdom.

Safe travels.. Gordon Patterson

Updated October 17, 2025

Photos © 2025 Christine Patterson