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TURKEY VULTURE

By:Kristeina

Physical Description

Diet and Feeding Habits 

The turkey Vulture enjoys plant matter as well, including shoreline vegetation, pumpkin, and bits of other crops.  The Turkey Vulture soars above the ground for most of the day, searching for food with its excellent eyesight and highly developed sense of smell.
The Turkey vulture will not  feed on live prey, an occasional habit of its cousin the black vulture.
Turkey Vultures can often be seen along roadsides, cleaning up roadkill, or near rivers, feasting on washed-up fish, another of their favorite foods.

 Reproduction

There is little or no construction of the nest. The female lays two eggs,the eggs color is cream,colored with brown spots around their larger end.Both parents sit on the eggs for the eggs to hatch the young hatches at around 40 days, the adult gives the young the throw-out food and care for the young for 10-11 weeks.

Habitat

The Turkey Vulture is found in open and semi-open areas thoughout  the American and Southern Canada to Cape Horn. It is a permanent resident in the southern United States,but the northern states birds may migrate as far south as South America.

Role in the Ecosystem 

It feeds primarily on decaying flesh from an animal cacass although they have been to eat some garbage as well.
By eating dead and decaying material the turkey vulture is playing an important role in the ecosystem.It is a omnivore scavenger.  The Turkey Vulture niches is it cleans the ecosystem by eating the decaying flesh.

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