The Turkey Buzzard

Turkey buzzards are ugly birds. They are huge, about the size of a turkey, but they eat carrion, not grasses and seeds. They also fly more than turkeys. Turkeys generally only fly up into trees to roost. Turkey buzzards soar on the thermals and can stay aloft for a very long time.

It is also called a turkey vulture. It found in the U.S. and Canada. It is native to this area and not brought in from Europe with the settlers, so it's a North American original.

We consider turkey buzzards good birds because they eat the dead animals along the road. We have also been alerted to dead cattle or a dead calf when we've noticed the turkey buzzards circling overhead.

These birds are unlike black vultures. A black vulture will attack a newborn calf, pecking out its eyes or attacking until it dies. Black vultures also eat eggs of other animals and small critters if they can catch them. We are not fans of black vultures. Black vultures used to be scarce here, but one of the local universities or a government facility (I've never been sure which) was studying them and they got loose. Now the black vultures are everywhere and we see more of them than we do turkey buzzards.

This turkey buzzard apparently was drawn to something stinking in our trash can. They have a heightened sense of smell. He spent several days staring morosely at the trash he could not reach. The smell must have dissipated because he is not hanging around anymore.