Error message
Unable to fetch location details at this time.
American black vulture
Coragyps atratus
9.68294, -84.2807
Field Notes
Description:
Black plumage with a featherless gray and cobbled face. With a wingspan up to 1.5 m wide, these large birds were easily visible circling the skies around rural Costa Rica, even from a great distance away.
Habitat:
open areas, ranging from southeastern U.S. to central Chile and Uruguay
Notes:
It landed in this tree with another black vulture, but I couldn't get the two in the same shot. I also learned, from a TV documentary that I watched in the plane on my flight home, that black vultures have a poor sense of smell and hunt almost entirely with their extremely good eyesight. They also eat newly-hatched sea turtles. In human populated areas, black vultures will also scavenge in garbage dumps.
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment
Sign in to comment