Black vulture bird, often known as American vulture, is one of the most abundant and important preying bird inhabiting this planet. The vulture might catch your sight, feeding on road kills and other dead and rotten materials. Its preying characteristic makes it exceedingly advantageous as it contributes significantly in cleaning up the mess from the environment that is put forward in the form of dead bodies or decomposing carcass. These birds are far more social than turkey vultures, a bird of its own family, and like travelling in large flocks. Talking about their habitat, these birds prefer open habitat and avoid dense forests and high mountain elevations as much as they can. This independent, self indulgent bird is found abundantly in USA along with some other European countries. It is one of the most aggressive species of bird known today. For interesting black vulture information, please keep on reading.

Physical Description

As the name depicts, these birds inherit a grey-black appearance. It is a medium sized bird with a short-notched tail, white legs and a grey featherless head as you can see in the black vulture pictures. With its length ranging between 22-27 inches and a wingspan of 55-60 inches, it comes slightly smaller than turkey vulture that is another species of vulture often residing in the same area. The male and female members are usually alike with minimal color variations.

Black Vulture Habitat

One of the black vulture bird facts is that they tend to be social birds, adapting well in open habitat and avoiding dense and higher mountain elevations at the same time. They are sighted travelling in large flocks and instantly cease their flight at the sight of carcass or decomposed material.

Black Vulture Diet

These birds along with their fellow vulture Turks consume dead and rotten material. You will find it interesting to know that they can nourish themselves with carcass and other road kills without causing any damage to their health. They predominantly attack small preys but newly born pigs are a source of great delight to them. Black vultures confide in other members and stay immensely alert to avoid any danger when eating. This enables them to eat particularly quickly with the fear of danger eliminated.

Environmental Importance

Black vultures, owing to their predatory nature, are of immeasurable importance to the environment. They play an important role in recycling the dead and decomposed matter from the landscape that would otherwise cause a disease.

Negative Aspects

Since these birds benefit in environmental cleaning, they also inflict a massive damage on livestock's or pets and damage to real estate or personal property. When in groups, they can turn quite aggressive and yield harmful consequences. They are becoming a serious threat to the garbage dumps of the densely populated urban centers.

Conservation Status

The black vultures have seen a rapid advancement in their number over the years. It is mainly due to its peculiar nature of adapting around human settlements. The population explosion can be stated as a significant reason in birds increasing population.