Cool Critters: Turkey Vultures - KQED QUEST

[LeakFreak]

As I type there are 50+ roosting in the 100+ft poplar trees in my backyard. I love them, so big and the way they "float" on a breeze looks like fun.

--Ane

[AloisAgos]

Had one of these guys in my neighborhood once. Really freaked out my mother. I named him Conrad.

[user2011rb]

good video! turkey vultures have a important rol cleaning the planet.....birds like vultures, eagles, hawks, have always amazed me.

[Frostheart29]

God, she's still a cute little thing, despite the vomiting and the parasites. :D

[ThePixieEater]

Where is the Lindsay Wildlife Museum located?

[KQEDondemand]

@ThePixieEater It's located in Walnut Creek, CA.

[magickitty0128]

Turkey vultures are awesome.

They're actually quite clean. Their digestive systems kill the bacteria and other crap they ingest, and, as the lady on the video said, the sun kills the bad stuff that gets on their feathers.

Don't forget that they clean the dead things up for us! If not for them, the world would be a much messier and stinkier place.

[EntropicMisanthropic]

@magickitty0128 That's true about cleaning up carrion, but I assure you, turkey vultures smell terrible. Wild birds are timid, don't like humans, and have a natural defense mechanism of projectile vomiting reflexively whenever they're surprised or in a bad mood. When found injured, they are famously smelly and hard to keep clean in captivity.

Until you've smelled hot rotten roadkill mixed with the strongest digestive juices in the animal kingdom, you don't know the meaning of bad smell.

[colts8787]

These birds just passed possums as the #1 most disgusting animal on the planet.

[rydag11]

@colts8787 Mean

[Stretchmancando]

These birds have always amazed me. I recently passed a landfill site and there were atleast 20 perched on top of a billboard.I think it was a lunch break.

[MyWildlifeVideos]

I just signed up to be a volunteer here! I also volunteer at International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield.