Turkey Vultures :: essays research papers

Turkey VulturesVultures are large birds of prey closely related to hawks and eagles.They are divided into bare-ass World vultures and senior World vultures, both belongingto the order Falconiformes. The New World vultures, in the family Cathartidae,consist of s yet species in five genera. Among the New World vultures includethe genus Cathartes aura, also known as the Turkey Vulture.Scientists say that misfire vultures are shy, inoffensive birds. Someresearchers have discovered that the bird is very helpful to the environment.Its usance of cleaning up decaying and diseased carcasses makes it a sanitaryengineer par excellence, while its keen sense of smell has been pressed intoservice to find inefficient and dangerous gas leaks. And the vultures uniqueknack for conserving energy has intrigued scientists for years.Although the turkey vulture has a large, turkeylike body and sporty redhead, it is not even distantly related to the turkey. Instead, turkey vultures-along with their co usins in the United States, the black vulture of the Southand East, and the nearly extinct California condor-belong to a group of raptorscalled New World vultures. Chromosome analysis shows that the New Worldvultures are actually more closely related to storks than to the vultures ofEurope, Asia, and Africa.Turkey vultures are remarkably successful birds. They range all overfrom parts of Canada and much of the United States to South America. At home indeserts, prairies and woodlands, they have even settled close to people in a come up of urban and suburban areas.Observed in flight, the turkey vulture appears black with the undersideof its move grayish or silvery, giving the birds a two-toned appearance. Theycharacteristically ready their wings in a slight V, or dihedral, thus aidingidentification. On rare occasions, they hold their wings flat and eagle-likewhich, if seen at a great distance, may cause the birds to resemble eagles. Inflight, the turkey vulture holds its naked hea d, crimson-red as adults andgrayish-black as immatures, downward in contrast to eagles, which hold theirheads forward.The tail of the turkey vulture extends far beyond the rear edge of itswings. They typically rock or tilt from side to side while gliding or ariseon updrafts or circling overhead. Their occasional wingbeats are powerful andlabored. Turkey vultures are large birds with wingspreads of about six feet.Their wings are long, moderatly wide, and have strongly slotted tips. Typically,the wings are held slightly above a horizontal plane when the bird is aloft.This forms a characteristic dihedral which is very useful in making correct discipline identification. Although turkey vultures use thermals, they are more