Turkey Vultures are large birds, with a wingspan of 63- 72 inches and weighing in at 1.5-5 pounds. The females are slightly larger than the males, but otherwise the sexes look alike. Both have the tell-tale featherless red head, dark body feathers, gray underside wing-tip feathers, and a vicious-looking hooked pale beak. Vultures have no septum separating their nostrils, so it’s possible to look in to one nostril and see straight through the beak. Generally considered one of the least charismatic avians, turkey vultures are actually very gentle and exceedingly non-aggressive. (Potentially this results from having few natural predators and not having to hunt and kill to eat.) In the air, you can spot a vulture by its flight pattern. Their upswept wings are held in a V-shape as they glide on thermal air currents. (This is unlike eagles and hawks, which tend to soar on flat wings, or crows, which flap their wings frequently.) Contrary to popular belief, circling vultures do not necessarily indicate the presence of a dead animal.  Circling vultures may be gaining altitude for long flights, searching for food, or playing.  On or near the ground, you’ll often see vultures adopting the “horaltic pose” with wings spread wide, looking quite fierce. Research into this behavior suggests that vultures may be absorbing sunlight to return to full temperature after dropping a few energy-saving degrees overnight. Another theory suggests they are airing out their wings. Since vultures can’t sweat, they urinate on their legs when they need to cool off. Additionally, this washes any carrion-carried bacteria off their legs and feet. Turkey vultures also lack the vocal capability of other birds. They hiss when threatened and grunt when they’re courting, or when they’re immature and hungry. Turkey vultures get the bulk of their calories from carrion, using their superior sense of smell to detect the gases produced by the beginning stages of decay. Adaptively speaking, their bald head helps keep vultures clean while sticking their head inside carcasses. They feed their young (2 per year) by regurgitation. While the general belief that vultures “projectile vomit” is mistaken, they do also vomit as a stress response. One theory holds that their unreliable food source forces them to gorge, often to the point of rendering flight impossible. The ability to throw up a token amount not only renders them able to fly away but also frequently distracts the predator, which goes after the meat instead of the vulture. All this clean living puts a vulture’s estimated maximum lifespan at about 21 years, with the oldest on record being a ripe 37 years old!