Species Spotlight: Black Vulture

Scientific Name: Coragyos atratus

Common Name: buzzard

Appearance : when flying, black wing feathers show a distinct "window" in the wing feathers just at the wrist area. Short tails make the bird seem to be almost without a tail when it is flying. Bare skin on head is black, beak is long and the last ½ of it is white. Legs are long, especially when compared with a turkey vulture. They have a stocky appearance in flight: short compact wings in comparison to a turkey vulture's elongated wings. Often soar higher than a turkey vulture.

Size: 2/3rds the size of a turkey vulture, weighing in at 3.8 to 5.1 pounds. Average wingspan is 59 inches, or almost 5 feet.

Voice: varied calls sound NOTHING like you would expect, but rather include a repertoire of hisses, grunts, growls and woofs.

Range: expanding from their traditional southern US habitats, now include all of West Va. in their range, as well as New Jersey, Pennsylvania & Indiana, down through Texas and over to Arizona. Nonmigratory.

Food Preferences: large carrion, will kill small mammals on occasion, will fish, eat skunks and attack newborn livestock. Will also eat oil palm fruit.

Hunting Technique: watching for scavenger activity below while soaring high above on thermals. Aggressive and combative with each other, aggressive with other species.

Breeding & Habitat: monogamous for the season, raises 2 young on average, very colonial in nesting and roosting habits. Family units are maintained throughout the year.

Nesting: occasionally in an opening in dense vegetation, on or in a stump zero to eight feet off the ground.

Eggs: light grayish-green, sometimes blue-white, often marked with wreaths of browns and lavender.

Status: Once a species of special concern in WV, their numbers have been steadily rising and now seem to be as numerous as the turkey vulture.

NOTES: Jim Phillips, Pipestem State Park's Naturalist and one of the State's top birders (to say the least!) sent me the following information pertaining to the Bluestone Lake State Park black vulture population:

"Dr P.C. Bibbee conducted 7 Christmas Bird Counts between 1947 and 1961. He found black vultures only in 1947 and 1949. His counts were in the Athens/Glenlyn area.

The Bibbee Nature Club has conducted the Pipestem Area Christmas Bird Count from 1972 to present. No black vultures were found on the count until 1978. They were reported 3 times between 1979 and 1986, 2 times between 1987 and 1995 and every year since 1996. The 2001 count saw a record number of 57.

The Bibbee Nature Club Spring bird counts (usually the first or second Saturday in May) have had black vultures reported 21 times between 1972 and 2002. They were not found on this count during the following years: 1972-1975, 1980, 1985, 1989-1990, 1994-1995. They have been listed every year since 1996."

It is thanks to Jim's good record keeping that we know that the Bluestone group numbered 100 individuals or slightly over before this sick person decided to start putting out poison.

Black vultures are highly intelligent and very communicative with each other. Young have a buff colored down (turkey vulture young have white down). Adults will pick on each other, seemingly trying to see if an individual who is feeling a little "off" that day may be willing to become food. Adolescents seem to be the focus of a lot of buffeting and picking.