Condor Watch Talk

turkey vultures

  • itsmestephanie by itsmestephanie

    Am seeing very few turkey vultures... is it because I'm making lots of mistakes, or are there not that many? Is a neck ruff a sure sign of a condor or do turkey vultures have them too?

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  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator

    I'm having a very difficult time with this too ! 😦 So, just give it your best shot ! 😄

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  • All41 by All41

    I haven't seen a single "definite" vulture either. Was wondering if anyone else was. Sometimes there is a group of 2 or so birds without a a raven for size reference and no visible tags so I think maybe vulture? But I would have expected to see more.

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  • Geek2 by Geek2

    I find that the field guide does not have enough images for us to compare. Maybe because it is still an early project and they are using external photos? I participate a lot in the Galaxy project, for example, and over there there are plenty of photos of all different types of galaxies and variants that you can find, it helps a lot when you are unsure of how to classify something.
    I really am struggling to identify anything other than an obvious condor or an obvious raven (usually a group of these), guess I'm not the only one so hopefully this project is still being tweaked and enhanced 😃

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  • All41 by All41

    http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW0000kpz

    If you can link to this pic I think it may be vultures because they seem smaller than the condors usually do. But I am just guessing. What do you think?

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  • inaspin by inaspin

    Got stuck on this question too - I googled up images for condor and the vultures - this is a great help. Observation seems to indicate that the condors have a ruff of fine feathers and a length of bald neck. The vulture has a feathered neck and usually a lighter end to the beak. Vulture also smaller, although this doesn't help unless there is a condor to compare with. Condor also has that "bulge" below the beak. Don't think I'd like to meet either in the flesh.

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  • richieheal by richieheal

    I asked the same question on the science discussion board. I agree that there needs to be more comparison shots to help but even so i am pretty sure that i have only had i image with them on.

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  • richieheal by richieheal

    All41 - these look like turkey vultures to me. The head shape is different to juvenile condors.

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  • wreness by wreness moderator

    (Galaxy Zoo does have awesome pics)

    I have found only a few turkey vultures so far, maybe 6 total, so I'd say they're not terribly common in the pics. Two were by themselves but hanging with some ravens (isn't everyone?); the others were in pictures with Condors but they were off to the side, not in the Pile of Condors. When there was nothing else around it but ravens the beak gave them away and also they carried themselves a bit higher so that you could see more of their leg (using the raven as a height) where the condors just seem to be one mass of feathers, almost dragging on the ground.

    Maybe helpful tips: (I looked at about 3 zillion pics wondering how to tell them apart, and still wonder...)

    Condors are black with white feathers that look like stripes on the topside, and can look like blocks of white on the underside. If you see white, it's a condor.
    *Vultures are dark brown with lighter brown at the tips.

    Condors have ugly white feet
    Vultures often have ugly pink feet

    Condors' heads can be red, yellow, pink, purple- ish, or any combo of this. They have 'cheeks' and throat pouches and all manner of lumps and can look like a nuclear baked potato.
    *Vultures heads are red (and can have black areas) and look like....well.... bird heads. Like big chickens. Without all that "stuff' going on. They have gigantic nostrils that look like you could park a garbage truck in. The tips of their beaks are ivory white.

    Condors have this long ugly neck like E.T. and has that fluffy, fuzzy , puffy, ruffle boa around its shoulders, like Uncle Fester of the Addams Family. It can have that whole ugly neck exposed or pull the Ruffle all the way up to its 'ears' if it is cold, which it should not be, being as it is in CA and most of us are not so it shouldn't be complaining.
    *Vultures have a "cuff" of feathers around their neck that doesn't move. They look the same all the time, like bigger, uglier chickens. Their head looks like a walking cane - a feather covered neck with this red head hooking out of it.

    (The juveniles of both species have black heads and black beaks, so, good luck with that...)

    Turkey vulture wing span - 6 ft.
    Condor - 9 ft Condors are really big compared to vultures. Vultures are Like Mini-Me condors. If you do see them together in the same picture, you will really see a noticeable size difference. (Sure, then it's easy, right?) 😃

    Condor pics

    Vulture pics

    It would be helpful to have a pop up ID chart that can be pulled up instead of going to another page; I'm sure things will be added as the site gets going.
    ......and of course put any helpful hints here!

    ~Don't forget to blink ~

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  • itsmestephanie by itsmestephanie in response to wreness's comment.

    Very helpful wreness, thanks!

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  • itsmestephanie by itsmestephanie

    This image for sure has a condor on the prey, and a turkey vulture walking away (and possibly two others).
    http://talk.condorwatch.org/#/subjects/ACW00012ee

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  • Geek2 by Geek2 in response to wreness's comment.

    Wow!! Thank you!! 😃

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  • reddder by reddder in response to wreness's comment.

    Fantastic work! Thank you for providing a gr8 source of comparison. I think that I must confess to having misidentified a few TVs. This must have taken a lot of time to put together, but many of us will benefit from it.

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  • mboschmd by mboschmd

    All4 1 - I've struggled with the condor/turkey vulture issue, too. I looked at the image you linked, and there's a great clue in that image to help you know that they're all condors...there's an adult condor towards the top with it's beautiful, bulbous pink/orange head...then looking at the birds with the dark heads, you see that they are basically the same size, more or less...so that should be a clue that this is a photo of all condors, with an adult and lots of dark, pointy-headed juveniles....and they all have dark beaks, unlike the turkey vulture, whose beak is very light-coloured - an ivory white.

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  • yshish by yshish in response to miltonbosch's comment.

    about the beak colours, here are some images of condors with light-coloured beaks: [1], [2]

    (i remember one image where were both of them - condors and turkey vultures mixed together and both had white beaks, but i can't find it, probably forgot to add it to my collections)

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  • wreness by wreness moderator in response to yshish's comment.

    I think it was this pic which I had put up on the FAcQ boards showing a juvenile (black) & adult condor with Vultures (small, white beaks)

    Also see our great Field Guide which as lots of info and photos of these birds that will help with their ID

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  • myraf by myraf scientist

    thanks wreness! Also, we have added a new section to the field guide (uploaded with the other changes) with photos that have both turkey vultures and condors to help tell the difference.

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  • wreness by wreness moderator

    Here's a VERY close up shot of a turkey vulture. It's a shame that the color of the photo is off, but you can see the "collar" of feathers on the neck, which never move, and their head sticking out of them at an angle. This is opposed to the long, snaky condor neck and head whith the fuzzy ruffle of feathers that they can pull up to their ears.

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