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New World vultures | Cathartiformes
Nieuwewereldgieren | Buitres del Nuevo Mundo
The vultures and condors of the Americas form an order of their own with a single family, the Cathartidae. They closely resemble the vultures of the Old World, but that likeness is the result of the same way of life rather than close kinship; they were once even placed with the storks, and are now set beside the hawks and other diurnal raptors. They are scavengers with a bare head, broad wings on which they soar for hours on thermals and slope winds, and weak, flat feet unsuited to grasping prey. The nostrils are perforate, so that one can look straight through them from the side, and a true voice box is lacking, so they can only hiss and grunt. They build no nest and lay one or two eggs on the bare floor of a cavity or ledge. In Mexico and Central America five species belong to this order, from the widespread Black and Turkey Vultures to the King Vulture of lowland forest and the California Condor, which has been reintroduced in northwestern Mexico.
Families in this order
- New World vultures | Cathartidae5 speciesMexico and Central America hold five species in four genera: Black and Turkey Vultures can be seen almost everywhere, from towns and rubbish dumps to open country and coast, the Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture glides low over savanna and marsh, the King Vulture lives above undisturbed lowland forest, and the California Condor has been reintroduced in the mountains of Baja California. The head and often the neck are bare, which makes it easier to keep clean when feeding on carcasses; in the King Vulture this skin is bright orange, red and purple. The wings are long and broad, and the birds soar for hours without flapping. Turkey and yellow-headed vultures find carrion by smell, a sense developed this well in few other birds, and other vultures follow them to it. The feet are weak and not used for grasping, the nostrils are perforate and a voice box is lacking, so only hisses and grunts are heard. In hot weather they soil their legs with droppings to cool down. No nest is built: one or two eggs lie in a hollow tree, a rock crevice or on a ledge, and the young are fed on regurgitated food.