Okay this is odd. The Vultures are back.

[deezler]

Someone is about to tell us more than they know about this. Buzzards can't smell,no bird can. On the other hand with eyesight like eagles,they see flies on animals from quite high then can tell the difference in flies as they circle lower above animals. If animal has injury that is starting to rot and attract green flies,buzzards often begin eating although animal is alive.

Yo, sort of, but no. Buzzards definitely smell. They just dont sniff in through a nose like you or me.

"Extensive research into bird senses has shown that vultures, seabirds, kiwis and parrots have well-developed olfactory glands, giving them some sense of smell and taste"

Bird Senses: Can Birds Smell or Taste?

Bird-watchers often wonder can birds smell and do birds have taste buds? Discover how birds survive with sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.

www.birdsandblooms.com

Edit: oops I'm way late to the correction party here, haha. oh well.

 

[kenmbz]

A smelling fight on TBN about vultures. hmmm

 

[deezler]

A smelling fight on TBN about vultures. hmmm

This forum is so broad ranging, lol. How can we connect this back to some tractors?

 

[mark48]

I used to be that the turkey vultures returned to Hinckley, OH on March 15.....That may have been true years ago, now they seem to be in SW Ohio all year and now we have black vultures. I saw three in town feeding on a flattened coon in middle of a busy street. All they do is retreat to side of road as opposed to flying off

 

[MossRoad]

This forum is so broad ranging, lol. How can we connect this back to some tractors?

Porsche Vulture

 

[ericm979]

Definitely both! If they're circling high, it's cruising a thermal, but I see them over the meadow here circling all the time much lower, typically in a gradually decreasing radius circle, getting lower and lower and then they land. They probably can drop more quickly like raptors, but the prey's dead already and they can be much more chill about the descent.

(I'll bet your deer wasn't quite... tenderized? yet. around here they tend to go after stuff that's pretty well seasoned, if you get my drift)

When I picked it up to move it, it was pretty rank. At least it came up in mostly one piece. The leach field's not that far from the house and we kept getting whiffs of dead deer and thinking maybe it was the leach field (though it doesn't smell normally). It took a few days for me to put vultures and smell together and go have a look. We have a resident pair of vultures that soar on thermals on our place and sometimes cruise by pretty close so originally I thought one of them was just showing off.

One of the interesting things my prof who studied vulture told me is that they kind of space themselves out and patrol a territory. When one dives down to check out something the others near by spot that and cruise over for a look, the ones next to those vultures see them and come over, etc.

 

[JasperFrank]

"But they find dying animals by smelling decay gases."

Rethink that sentence, and i'll get back to you...

 

[the old grind]

This black vulture seasonal range map might be updated someday. Not all of us are familiar with 'em.

Thanks to the National Audubon Society for public access to this.

 

[ning]

"But they find dying animals by smelling decay gases."

Rethink that sentence, and i'll get back to you...

Maybe they have gangrene?

 

[ovrszd]

i use to time the seasons more on the way the buzzards would return and leave. They are very good at knowing how the weather is going to be.
I was a bit shocked today to see our local crew of buzzards return. Its January. They NEVER return in January. That's two months too early.

Where are you?