Summary

This episode is about the seven bird species in the family Cathartidae: the New World vultures and condors.

This group includes species like the Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, and Andean Condor.

Among these birds are some that people celebrate, or even revere. But others tend to get ignored, disparaged, or at worst, persecuted. I guess you could say our relationship with New World Vultures has been… complicated.

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Research Citations

• Multi-locus phylogenetic inference among New World vultures (Aves: Cathartidae)
• Dietary controls on extinction versus survival among avian megafauna in the late Pleistocene
• Use of thermal power plants by New World vultures (Cathartidae) as an artifice to gain lift [PDF]
• Obligate vertebrate scavengers must be large soaring fliers
• The microbiome of New World vultures
• A revision of vulture feeding classification

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Photos of Some Species Mentioned