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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

East Texas USA (1 Viewer)

J

JB00

Member
Captured this image of a black and white turkey vulture, (I think) with our new game camera. Lots of turkey vultures around here, but I've never seen one with white plumage like this. Could it be an immature turkey vulture? It has white fuzzy down around its head and neck. Thanks!
 

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Looks like you've got yourself a Black Vulture ;)

Hi there and a warm welcome to you from those of us on staff here at BirdForum :t:
 
It's a young Black Vulture with some retained white down feathers. The legs are gray, the newer feathers are all blackish, and the head is black; all are Black Vulture features. The bill appears all dark, which is a character of recently fledged birds.
 
Microtus said:
It's a young Black Vulture with some retained white down feathers. The legs are gray, the newer feathers are all blackish, and the head is black; all are Black Vulture features. The bill appears all dark, which is a character of recently fledged birds.
Click to expand...

Ok, Thanks!
 
The wingtips fall short of the tail tip (where the feathers appear to be of fairly equal length), which I would not expect for a Turkey Vulture. But, I agree that the underwing with its lighter flight feathers does look better for Turkey.

On the other hand, the overall appearance of the upperparts feathers are pretty uniformly blackish, darker than I would expect on eve a young Turkey Vulture. I realize that lighting and exposure factors may make this bird look darker than it is.

I move into the undecided camp right now as I finish sipping my tea this morning.
 
Microtus said:
The wingtips fall short of the tail tip (where the feathers appear to be of fairly equal length), which I would not expect for a Turkey Vulture. But, I agree that the underwing with its lighter flight feathers does look better for Turkey.

On the other hand, the overall appearance of the upperparts feathers are pretty uniformly blackish, darker than I would expect on eve a young Turkey Vulture. I realize that lighting and exposure factors may make this bird look darker than it is.

I move into the undecided camp right now as I finish sipping my tea this morning.
Click to expand...

Thank you both for the input. I have the camera in the same place, so I'll be able to get more pics of the activity there. Its nest is there below the camera, so I should be able to get mom and pop there soon. That should give final proof of the type bird this is.
 
Microtus said:
The wingtips fall short of the tail tip (where the feathers appear to be of fairly equal length), which I would not expect for a Turkey Vulture. But, I agree that the underwing with its lighter flight feathers does look better for Turkey.

On the other hand, the overall appearance of the upperparts feathers are pretty uniformly blackish, darker than I would expect on eve a young Turkey Vulture. I realize that lighting and exposure factors may make this bird look darker than it is.

I move into the undecided camp right now as I finish sipping my tea this morning.
Click to expand...

Here's another video taken the next day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CETSDn13q-c
 
JB00 said:
Here's more video of the vultures. A Turkey Vulture fighting with the two young Black Vultures........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpzLYVGmgg8

Here's a Close-Up of one of the Black Vultures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF83N294oLE
Click to expand...

These are all Turkey Vultures (as Matt suggested above). The "Black Vultures" are not fighting with the adult, but are its offspring being fed by the adult. The adult appears to be regurgitating food directly into the mouth of its offspring.

Best,
Jim
 
That's what I thought when I first saw it, then it looked too violent to be a feeding behavior. Will the young ones get red heads as they get older?

Thanks!
Jim
 
JB00 said:
That's what I thought when I first saw it, then it looked too violent to be a feeding behavior. Will the young ones get red heads as they get older?

Thanks!
Jim
Click to expand...

Yes. Young TVs have black heads that turn red as they mature. The young birds will compete to be fed by the parent first, so that may be why it looks a bit violent. A nice capture on film in any event. Not something that is often seen.
 
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