tags: Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, birds, Kansas, image of the day
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Feathers only rarely fossilize, so the distribution of feathers in dinosaurs is difficult to determine. Sometimes feathers mark the bones, though, and bones do preserve well.
tags: Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura,
I got my first close-up look at turkey vultures a few weeks ago when I rounded a sharp turn on a mountain road and found a flock of them noshing on a deer carcass. I thought they were beautiful with their red heads and white wingtips. I mentioned this encounter to friends who all said, "Ugh, turkey vultures, they're so ugly!" Something about having "naked heads". Go figure.
One day speeding down a straight stretch of highway, I saw a turkey buzzard on the shoulder. At a distance, I could see from its body language that it was puzzled and confused. No wonder, it was trying to figure out how to eat a dead porkypine. I was surprised and impressed that its puzzlment was obvious from a considerable distance.