Vultures

[Mama_in_the_Dell]

We've always had vultures around our neighborhood and they never seemed to be a problem but today they actually swooped into my neighbors yard and grabbed a chicken. She has mostly silkies and some are about 10 weeks mixes with standard rooster. There are more than 20 vultures in the trees around my house and theirs just waiting for us all to go back inside. Fortunately all my girls were in their runs but I had just never heard of this. They are just your standard red head white tipped wing vultures. Yesterday they feasted on an armadillo in the road about a mile away. So it’s not like they are starving either. Anyone ever have vultures do this?

 

[Al Capon]

Turkey vultures don't have gripping talons like other raptors, they have long toes for walking on the ground and eating dead stuff. Did you see the vulture grab the chicken?

 

[SueT]

I agree with post#2. Vulture feet are like chicken feet, they can't grab prey and carry it off. They are designed to be scavengers. Perhaps a hawk grabbed your neighbors' chicken, and they jumped to the wrong conclusion?

 

[janiedoe]

I've never had a problem with vultures but....follow this link. You will find that some people state that they have had issues with them.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAGegQIERAL&usg=AOvVaw0EIVJMCi7I9vs5gl3CFRxn

 

[SueT]

I've never had a problem with vultures but....follow this link. You will find that some people state that they have had issues with them.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAGegQIERAL&usg=AOvVaw0EIVJMCi7I9vs5gl3CFRxn

That article describes black vultures--I have never seen those, and I hope I never do! So if your vultures have black heads, I guess you'd better take precautions.....But it also says the turkey vultures, the ones with the red heads, do not attack livestock.

 

[Mama_in_the_Dell]

They grabbed it with their mouth but it did drop and get away. The neighbor saw it as they were all swarming in their back yard.

 

[SueT]

You'll have to ask her which species it was.....it should be easy to differentiate.....

 

[Mama_in_the_Dell]

It's possible they are black vultures that are passing through. I only saw them when they were up in the trees and flying over head. I did not think to pay attention to what kind they were and assumed they were the same ones we normally have. Our regular turkey vultures mostly hang out at the water tower. There seems to be a lot more birds flying around than what we typically see. They were likely going for the smaller babies. I’ve just never seen or heard of them going after live animals before.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Black Vultures routinely attack and consume newly hatched sea turtles as well as eggs once the nests have been excavated by other predators.

"Black Vultures feed almost exclusively on carrion, locating it by soaring high in the skies on thermals. From this vantage they can spot carcasses and also keep an eye on Turkey Vultures—which have a more developed sense of smell—and follow them toward food. Black Vultures often gather in numbers at carcasses and then displace Turkey Vultures from the food. Their carrion diet includes feral hogs, poultry, cattle, donkeys, raccoons, coyotes, opossums, striped skunks, and armadillos. Sometimes Black Vultures wade into shallow water to feed on floating carrion, or to catch small fish. They occasionally kill skunks, opossums, night-herons, leatherback turtle hatchlings, and livestock, including young pigs, lambs, and calves. They also often investigate dumpsters and landfills to pick at human discards."

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black_Vulture/lifehistory

https://animals.mom.me/list-predators-baby-sea-turtles-8011.html

I can well imagine that if food was scarce (or else very plentiful as in the case of the Arribada; sea turtles nesting and hatching) they would seek food in unlikely or uncharacteristic places.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I live in a rural area where I've heard more than one person assert that a vulture killed a lamb, a calf, etc. Further investigation - really, a minimal amount - revealed that (1) the kill wasn't actually witnessed and (2) the accusers often don't know how to differentiate between a turkey vulture and a black vulture. One accuser went so far as to say that she purposely swerves toward vultures on the side of the road because they kill her lambs - but the vultures on the side of the road are carrion-eating turkey vultures, not black vultures! And there are a plethora of other more likely suspects, like foxes and coyotes, that are probably actually responsible.

When the misinformed do something like that, people like me are left to capture the injured animals from the side of the and take them to a raptor rehab center.