{"id":54194,"date":"2013-04-12T00:56:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T06:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/scavenging-buzzards-herald-spring\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T18:36:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T18:36:48","slug":"scavenging-buzzards-herald-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/scavenging-buzzards-herald-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Scavenging ‘buzzards’ herald spring"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
A TURKEY VULTURE surveys the area from the top of a fence post. The vultures return each year late in March and roost at the highest spots in Cortez.<\/span>marc meyer\/special to the journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is the bird\u2019s arrival a sign that the world is coming to an end?<\/p>\n

Local wildlife officials don\u2019t think so. In fact, the turkey vultures arrive every year around this time.<\/p>\n

The birds typically arrive around April 1, said local bird expert Fred Blackburn.<\/p>\n

Three or four \u201cpiloting\u201d birds come to town first to scope out the area and then hordes of the birds arrive a few days later. The group leaves in early fall.<\/p>\n

While no one knows exactly where the birds migrate from, they spend the rest of the year in the southern United States and South America.<\/p>\n

The vulture gets a bad rap and is rightfully known as the scavenger, but it is actually a \u201cfascinating\u201d bird, said Joe Lewandowski, spokesman with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have an amazing sense of smell. They can smell dead stuff from miles away, and they\u2019ll home in on it when they catch a little odor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The vulture has a distinct look: a large, black body with broad wings and a bald head. There is an evolutionary reason the bird lacks feathers on its head. Bacteria and lice won\u2019t get trapped in the feathers when the bird is rooting inside an animal\u2019s carcass.<\/p>\n

The bird also urinates on its legs, a habit called urohydrosis, to kill the bacteria from the dead animals it steps in and to keep the bird cool, Lewandowski said.<\/p>\n

When the vultures come to town, they roost in the same areas year after year, Blackburn said. They\u2019re typically seen near the corner of Market Street and Montezuma Avenue.<\/p>\n

Homeowners may not be pleased to see the vultures once again roosting near their homes because of the mess they leave under the trees, but be forewarned: The vulture is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and it is illegal to kill them.<\/p>\n

The good news is, they won\u2019t attack livestock or pets, Lewandowski said.<\/p>\n

jdahl@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A TURKEY VULTURE surveys the area from the top of a fence post. The vultures return each year late in March and roost at the highest spots in Cortez.marc meyer\/special to the journal Is the bird\u2019s arrival a sign that the world is coming to an end? Local wildlife officials don\u2019t think so. In fact, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-54194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54886,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54194\/revisions\/54886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54194"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=54194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}