[image:
undefined]<http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/files/2013/01/Black-Vulture.jpg>
One of the great pleasures of driving around the American south-west is the
variety of raptors – birds of prey – that present themselves as you cruise
the big-sky country. Perched on trees and power-poles, soaring high on
thermals or just hanging around looking for the dead or dying. They are out
there, you've just got to use that inquisitive and following eye to find
them.
I had a look at one of the most common American raptors, the Turkey Vulture
(*Cathartes aura)*, back in 2009
here<http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2009/04/11/bird-of-the-week-turkey-vulture-cathartes-aura/>.
This week's bird is the Turkey Vulture's less common cousin, the Black
Vulture (*Coragyps atratus*) and I caught up with this 40 year-old bird –
and his 30 year-old female companion – in the back-yard aviary of my friend
and respected ethnoornithologist Amadeo
Rea<http://www.sandiego.edu/cas/anthropology/faculty/biography.php?ID=6>
from
the University of San Diego at his house there a few weeks ago.
You can learn more about Amadeo's magisterial ethnobiological work with the
Piman peoples at the *University of Arizona Press* page
here<http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/catalogs/author_books.php?id=1260>
.
Amadeo has looked after these birds since they were fledglings as part of
his long-term research into the relationships between human and birds in
the American south and south-west.
Black Vultures rely on sight than smell when searching for food and will
often follow a Turkey Vulture towards carrion, where they can gather in
large flocks – often of several hundred birds – around a carcass. Black
Vultures have stronger beaks than their cousins and can tear up carcasses
more easily and will take a wider variety of food, including vegetable and
fruits like over-ripe coconuts, pumpkins and oil-palm nuts.
You can read the rest of this piece at *The Northern
Myth<http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2013/01/21/bird-of-the-week-black-vulture-coragyps-atratus-they-eat-anything-but-especially-they-like-the-shit/>
or
find out more about ethno-ornithology at the Ethnoornithology Research &
Study group. <http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ethnoornithology/>*
I'd love to hear your thoughts or your own experiences with Vultures - of
any species ...
--
Bob Gosford
Crikey.com
The Northern Myth blog
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/
Alice Springs, NT
Australia
Ph: (+61) 0447024968
Twitter: @bgosford
"The NT Government does not respond to random electronic gossip sites."
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