My Year of Darwin 3/8/2014:Sympathy for the vulture

"The number, tameness, and disgusting habits of the carrion-feeding hawks of South America make them pre-eminently striking to any one accustomed only to the birds of Northern Europe." Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

I was very much impressed by the diversity of carrion feeding birds in the tropics. To start with the coolest bird, even compared to the tanagers and cotingas, is the King Vulture. Nearly all white with a multicolored head (lots of carotenoids - how do they get them???) this is the king because the other vultures give way to this species. I've seen them flying over the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project numerous time and on the ground only once. A group of black vultures were feasting on a deer and I happen to come up when a king moved in and chased the others off. This was a great day. 

Perhaps more remarkable was the time I was in camp and I thought there was a jet passing over (they don't) and it was getting louder and louder but then I noticed a King Vulture had apparently stalled and was dropping straight down with feathers ruffling. The sound was incredible. "WOOOOSH". Then just as it was below the tree canopy the bird zipped in the forest, presumably to feast on our garbage. 

In the Amazon, there are Turkey Vultures, two species of yellow-headed vultures (Lesser and Greater) and the Black Vulture. Black and Turkey make it up to the US and Black is expanding to the north. 

The tameness Darwin reports, was probably related to his observations of Black Vultures. They wander the streets of all the South and Central American towns I've been in. The gather in huge numbers near landfills. 

I find them all fascinating - even the incredibly common Black Vulture. And in tropical towns, they eat organic garbage, reducing the stench that would otherwise waft from the sidewalks. So, Charles Darwin, have some sympathy for the vulture.